A   FLCWER,  Benjamin  0. 

Story  of  the  Menace  Trial- 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
RIVERSIDE 


S35CD1S 


Story  of 
The  Menace  Trial 


A  Brief  Sketch  of  this  Historic  Case  With  Reports 
of  the  Masterly  Addresses  by 

Hon.  J.  L.  McNatt 

— and — 

Hon.  J.  I.  Sheppterd 

Attorneys  for  the  Defense.. 


in 


COMPILED  BY  B.  O.   FLOWER, 
President  Free  Press  Defense  League 


10c     per    copy ;     6     for     60c ;     12     for    $1.00 ;     $6.00     per     100 


AURORA,    MO. 

UNITED  STATES  PUBLISHING  CO. 
1916. 


The  vindication  of  THE  MENACE  was  the  first  distinct  victory 
won  by  the  friends  of  our  free  institutions,  in  the  mighty  conflict 
being  waged  by  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy,  for  the  purpose  of 
substituting  the  papal  theory  of  government  for  the  free  democ- 
racy of  our  republic.  It  was  a  victory  of  great  significance  and 
interest  to  all  present  day  patriots,  and  will  take  its  place  with 
other  historic  cases  in  the  people's  warfare  throughout  the  ages 
in  defense  of  their  vital  freedom  from  the  assaults  of  despotic 
rulers,  hierarchies  and  privilege-seeking  classes. 


Preface 

There  have  been  many  critical  hours  in  the  history  of 
this  Republic,  but  not  until  recent  years  has  there  been  a 
nation-wide  organized  and  systematic  attempt  to  replace  the 
magnificent  free  democracy  of  our  fathers  by  a  system  that 
in  history,  theory  and  practice  has  consistently  opposed  all 
the  distinguishing  glories  of  our  free  Republic: — popular 
sovereignty,  freedom  of  religion,  thought,  speech,  press  and 
assembly,  divorce  of  church  and  state  and  popular  secular 
education. 

The  present  peril  is  doubly  dangerous  because  it  is  ad- 
vancing under  false  pretenses  claiming  that  it  does  not  rep- 
resent a  hierarchical  power  that  condemns  popular  sover- 
eignty, freedom  of  thought  and  utterance,  divorce  of  church 
and  state,  and  our  public  free  school  system,  in  the  face  of 
the  fact  that  the  last  three  popes,  the  only  authoritative  and 
to  the  subjects  of  the  papal  system,  infallible  mouthpieces  of 
the  hierarchy,  have  gone  on  record  in  condemnation  of  all 
these  things. 

No  one  can  read  the  encyclicals  or  ex  cathedra  and 
therefore,  to  all  Catholics,  infallible  and  binding  declarations 
of  Pope  Pius  IX,  Leo  XIII,  and  Pius  X,  in  regard  to  all 
these  things,  without  recognizing  that  this  war  is  between 


0  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    MENACE    TRIAL 

two  irreconcilable  theories  of  government.  It  is  a  war  for 
the  very  life  of  the  democracy  of  the  fathers  and  those  great 
bulwarks  of  free  institutions  against  which  Rome  has  waged 
a  ceaseless  war  since  the  days  when  she  began  her  merciless 
extinction  of  the  God-fearing  Albigenses  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, to  the  present  hour;  a  war  in  which  the  same  intoler- 
ance and  implacable  hate  have  often  times  been  evinced  as 
marked  the  struggle  between  ancient  Rome  and  Carthage. 


The  Story  of  The  Menace  Trial 

By  B.  O.   FLOWER,  President   Free  Press  Defense  League. 

The  prosecution  of  THE  MENACE  which  opened  on  Tues- 
day, January  the  llth  1916,  in  the  Federal  Court  room  in 
Joplin,  Missouri,  was  an  event  that  will  loom  large  in  the 
perspective  of  history,  for  it  was  the  great  opening  battle 
in  the  mighty  irrepressible  conflict  between  two  world  theories 
of  government  that,  being  mutually  exclusive  can  not  exist 
together. 

There  had  been  several  sharp  scrimmages  between  the 
upholders  of  the  democratic  theory  of  government  and  the 
organized  upholders  of  the  papal  theory  in  recent  years, 
since  the  Romanists  set  out  to  make  America  dominantly 
Roman  Catholic.  But  not  since  the  Knights  of  Columbus 
and  the  American  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies  began 
their  attacks  on  freedom  of  speech  and  press  has  any  battle 
been  waged  that  is  comparable  to  this  determined  attempt  to 
crush  THE  MENACE. 

THE  STAGE  AND  THE  BACKGROUND 

Joplin,  Missouri,  is  a  small  western  city  of  about  forty 
thousand  souls.  Heretofore,  it  has  chiefly  been  famous  as  a 
great  zinc  and  lead  mining  center,  henceforth  it  will  have 
another  claim  to  immortality.  From  January  llth,  1916. 


8 

Joplin  will  be  known  to  history  as  Alton,  111.,  and  Harper's 
Ferry  are  known  in  the  chronicles  of  our  nation. 

History  takes  note  of  crucial  events.  Little  else  appears 
upon  her  negatives.  What  makes  Marathon  forever  glorious 
in  the  world's  annals?  What  gives  enduring  interest  to 
Salamis,  to  Thermopylae,  to  Runnymede,  to  Independence 
Hall  or  to  The  Alamo?  All  these  places  would  have  been 
forgotten,  or  innocent  of  interest,  had  it  not  been  for  events 
of  historic  importance,  the  overthrow  of  the  Oriental  hordes, 
the  heroic  defense  of  the  Spartan  band,  the  signing  of  the 
Magna  Charta,  the  promulgation  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, the  unforgettable  heroism  of  the  little  band  who 
had  no  messenger  of  defeat — such  deeds  of  daring,  marking 
crucial  moments  in  the  annals  of  nations  or  the  history  of 
civilization,  make  indelible  impress  upon  the  ages.  These 
are  dear  to  history ;  so  Joplin  henceforth  will  live  in  story. 

THE  HAND  OF  ESAU  BUT  THE  VOICE  OF  JACOB 

Who  was  the  prosecutor  of  THE  MENACE,  and  what  was 
the  true  animus  behind  that  prosecution? 

Outward  and  seemingly  it  was  the  United  States  gov- 
ernment, but  inwardly  and  truly  it  was  politico-ecclesiastical 
Romanism;  and  behind  the  United  States  government  were 
the  tax  payers  of  America,  who  must  bear  the  burden  of 
this,  and  other  costly  prosecutions  that  have  been  brought 
about  recently  at  the  instigation  of  the  clericals  who  are 
striving  to  substitute  the  papal  for  the  democratic  system  of 
government. 

Only  because  Rome  is  in  politics,  only  because  she  is 
organized  and  can  act  as  a  unit,  is  it  possible  for  such  shame- 
ful burdens  to  be  imposed  upon  the  eighty-five  million  non- 
Roman  Catholics  of  America,  by  the  less  than  fifteen  million 
Romanists  in  the  effort  to  further  abridge  the  liberty  of  the 


THE    STORY    OF   THE    MENACE   TRIAL  9 

press  and  to  check  freedom  of  religious  discussion  through 
employing  technicalities  that  are  in  effect  a  shameful  abuse 
of  the  obscenity  statutes. 

On  more  than  one  occasion,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies  resolutions  have 
been  passed  demanding  legislation  that  would  abridge  the 
right  of  religious  discussion.  For  years  the  Eoman  Cath- 
olics in  their  press,  in  public  meetings,  and  through  their 
organizations,  have  been  carrying  on  an  aggressive  warfare 
to  destroy  THE  MENACE.  The  prosecution  at  Joplin  was 
merely  one  of  the  multitudinous  efforts  of  politico-ecclesias- 
tical Romanism  to  destroy  the  most  formidable  organ  arrayed 
against  the  un-American  aggression  of  Political  Romanism. 

ABUSE  OF  THE  OBSCENITY  STATUTES 

The  so-called  obscenity  statutes  were  passed  by  our  law 
makers  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  publication  -and 
dissemination  of  palpably  obscene,  lewd  and  corrupt  matter 
that  was  being  circulated  with  the  manifest  purpose  of  de- 
basing the  morals  of  the  people.  Many  far  sighted  friends 
of  freedom  and  statesmen  of  breadth  of  vision  and  knowledge 
of  history,  opposed  the  legislation  as  framed,  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  too  loosely  drawn  and  would  be  liable  to  be  em- 
ployed as  an  instrument  of  persecution  against  noble  minded 
men  and  women  who  were  striving  to  correct  abuses  and  ex- 
pose moral  and  debasing  conditions.  It  was  pointed  out  that 
great  interests  that  might  be  fattening  upon  corrupt  prac- 
tices, or  organizations  that  might  be  engaged  in  evil  prac- 
tices which  feared  the  light  of  day,  might  easily  seize  upon 
these  statutes  to  prevent  the  public  from  being  acquainted 


10  THE   STOKY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

with  the  evil  facts  that  canker-like,  were  eating  into  the  body 
politic. 

The  prosecution  of  THE  MENACE  afforded  a  striking 
verification  of  the  predictions  of  the  wise  and  noble  minded 
statesmen  and  moralists,  who  feared  that  the  proposed  legis- 
lation would  be  thus  made  an  instrument  of  persecution  for 
the  shielding  of  those  who  feared  the  light. 

Clearly  in  all  cases  of  this  kind,  if  the  ends  of  justice 
and  morality  are  to  be  conserved  by  the  courts,  (and  what 
other  legitimate  functions  have  the  courts  in  such  cases?)  Cer- 
tain elements  should  be  taken  into  consideration,  as,  for 
example:  the  intent  of  the  lawmakers  who  frame  the  stat- 
utes; the  character  of  the  defendants;  the  palpable  aim  and 
object  of  the  publishers;  the  general  moral  tone  and  charac- 
ter of  the  publication,  and  especially  the  character  and  ob- 
vious influence  on  the  mind  of  the  general  reader  of  the 
article  or  publication  against  which  the  charge  is  brought. 

If  stern  moralists,  whose  passion  is  to  purify  and  en- 
noble society,  are  to  be  made  amenable  to  the  statutes  for 
exposing  conditions  of  white  slavery,  for  instance,  for  at- 
tempting to  protect  the  defenseless  from  the  moral  lepers  of 
society;  if  high-minded  Christian  men  whose  only  aim  is 
to  conserve  morality  and  preserve  free  institutions  can  be 
prosecuted  for  exposing  moral  iniquity  and  evil  and  un- 
American  conditions,  then  vice,  immorality  and  obscenity 
will  flourish  as  the  bay  tree,  by  virtue  of  such  abuses  of  the 
Statutes  intended  to  remedy  the  evil  conditions. 

To  wrest  a  few  words,  sentences  or  paragraphs  from 
their  context  and  refuse  to  permit  a  jury  to  consider  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  whole,  and  to  refuse  to  permit  the  accused  to 
prove  the  truth  of  the  charges  made  to  establish  the  intent, 
purpose  and  necessity  for  their  publication  clearly  is  not  only 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  11 

to  do  violence  to  the  aims  of  the  legislation,  but  it  is  to  es- 
tablish conditions  that  foster,  bulwark  and  render  impreg- 
nable the  very  evils  the  laws  aim  to  check. 

In  the  course  of  his  opening  address,  the  senior  counsel 
for  the  defense,  thus  contrasted  the  real  intent  of  the  framers 
of  the  obscenity  statutes  with  the  present  attempt  to  destroy 
a  great  and  sternly  moral  publication  which  had  become  a 
deadly  menace  to  a  hierarchy  that  dare  not  face  the  light  of 
truth  or  encourage  investigations  into  its  teachings  and  prac- 
tices. Said  Mr.  Sheppard : 

"If  your  honor  please,  what  I  would  like  to  get  plain  is  this: 
You  have  tried,  and  I  have  tried,  and  the  district  attorney  has  tried, 
cases  like  we  saw  here  this  morning — foul  letters  sent  through  the 
mails  to  honest,  decent  women  and  young  girls,  and  of  course  that 
is  a  vileness  that  no  decent  man  could  imagine  for  a  minute  being 
countenanced.  But  we  are  not  to  be  tried  under  that  rule,  if  your 
honor  please.  These  defendants  are  legitimately  engaged  in  publish- 
ing a  newspaper  that  is  devoted  to  attacking  a  great  public  wrong. 
In  fact,  a  national  evil.  Under  such  circumstances  the  courts  have 
said,  and  very  recently,  that  the  publisher  has  the  right  to  speak 
plainly — 'to  use  language  that  may  be  offensive  to  ears  polite.'  In 
the  last  case  of  this  character  tried,  that  of  the  Hon.  Thomas  E. 
Watson,  the  district  court  held  that  the  jury  had  a  right  to  determine 
from  the  publication  itself,  the  good  faith  and  purpose  of  the  writer, 
provided  he  was  attacking  some  great  wrong.  And  this  to  determine 
whether  the  matter  complained  of  is  obscene. ' ' 

Another  important  fact  was  clearly  emphasized.  It  was 
shown  that  if  such  prosecutions  and  persecutions  are  toler- 
ated by  parity  of  reasoning  the  Bible,  together  with  a  vast 
number  of  the  noblest  works  of  genius  born  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, necessarily  come  under  the  meaning  of  these  statutes 
and  should, — nay,  must  be  ruled  out  of  the  mails  unless  the 


12  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

courts  in  deference  to  Political  Eomanism  propose  to  make 
fish  of  one  and  fowl  of  another. 

In  the  case  of  Anna  Lowry  it  was  a  Eoman  Catholic  who 
was  instrumental  in  securing  her  arrest  in  Minnesota  on  the 
charge  of  uttering  obscene  language,  when  she  had  merely 
read  the  questions  which  the  Eoman  Catholic  saint  Liguori 
prescribed  for  priests  to  put  to  maid  and  matron  in  the 
privacy  of  the  confessional.  In  the  case  of  Thomas  E.  Wat- 
son it  was  the  American  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies, 
according  to  the  boast  of  its  secretary,  which  secured  action 
against  the  distinguished  southern  editor  for  publishing 
Liguori's  questions,  though  Mr.  Watson  took  the  precaution 
to  publish  them  in  Latin,  just  as  they  are  published  and  sent 
through  the  mails  by  leading  Eoman  Catholic  publishing 
houses  of  America. 

So  it  was  leading  Eoman  Catholics  who  instigated  the 
prosecution  and  sought  to  crush  THE  MENACE  by  means  of 
the  obscenity  statutes,  because  that  journal  did  what  decent 
journals  must  do  if  the  purity  of  society  is  to  be  main- 
tained, viz.,  expose  what  appear  to  be  immoral  and  vice- 
breeding  conditions. 

NOT  A  QUESTION  OF  MOEALS 

The  matter  complained  of  is  so  palpably  less  open  to  ob- 
jection on  the  grounds  of  obscenity  than  much  of  the  un- 
criticized  news  matter  appearing  in  the  daily  press  of  the 
land,  that  the  pretext  upon  which  the  prosecution  was  based 
is  too  absurd  to  merit  serious  consideration.  Moreover,  the 
Eoman  Catholics  are  circulating  through  the  mails,  matter 
written  by  one,  who  during  the  last  century  was  honored  by 
the  Eoman  Catholic  church  both  by  canonization  and  eleva- 
tion to  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Moral  Theology,  which  the 
courts  hold  to  be  grossly  obscene;  and  this  vile  and  obscene 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  13 

matter  constitutes  the  questions  which  this  greatest  of 
Rome's  moral  theologians  prescribed  for  bachelor  priests  to 
pour  into  the  ears  of  innocent  maids  and  matrons  in  the 
secrecy  of  the  confessional. 

Hence,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  obscenity  statutes 
were  invoked  merely  on  a  technicality  in  order  that  with- 
out expense  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  the  American  tax 
payers,  over  eighty-five  per  cent  of  whom  are  non-Roman 
Catholics,  might  be  burdened  in  the  organized  effort  of  cler- 
ical Rome  to  interfere  with  freedom  of  religious  discussion. 

WHAT  ROME  OBJECTS  TO 

What  Rome  objects  to  is  the  publicity  given  to  facts 
connected  with  lives  of  priests  and  the  moral  teachings  en- 
dorsed by  the  church  which  are  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
moral  standard  of  American  society. 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  appear  that  this  trial 
was  one  so  vital  in  its  import  to  free  institutions  and  to  the 
continued  upward  sweep  of  our  civilization,  that  every  friend 
of  fundamental  democracy  -and  of  sound  morality  can  not 
fail  to  rejoice  at  the  outcome.  Moreover,  since  it  was  the 
opening  conflict  in  what  is  probably  the  greatest  crisis  in  the 
history  of  free  institutions,  it  is  a  story  of  overshadowing  in- 
terests to  present  day  patriots  and  to  generations  yet  unborn. 

To  visualize  the  scene  and  fix  the  prominent  figures  in 
the  readers  mind,  we  will  give  a  cast  of  the  principal  char- 
acters in  this  vital  twentieth  century  drama. 

LEADING  CHARACTERS  IN  THE  HISTORIC  TRIAL 

Hon.    Arba   8.    Van   Valkenburgh:    U.    S.    District    Judge   who 
presided. 

Francis  M.  Wilson:  U.  8.  District  Attorney. 

8.  O.  Hargus:  Assistant  to  the  District  Attorney. 

J.  I.  Sheppard  and  J.  L.  McNatt:  Attorneys  for  the  defense. 


14  THE   STOEY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

Frank  Dale,  Sheldon,  Mo.;  H.  G.  Foster,  Nevada,  Mo.;  J.  C. 
Lane,  Crane,  Mo.;  Ely  Maupin,  Lamar,  Mo.;  Dudley  Biggs,  Eocky 
Comfort,  Mo.;  J.  C.  Brown,  Liberal,  Mo.;  J.  W.  Jennings,  Oto, 
Mo.;  C.  A.' Caldwell,  Anderson,  Mo.;  U.  L.  Coleman,  Marionville, 
Mo.;  H  .T.  Maberry,  Mt.  Vernon,  Mo.;  J  F.  Hisey,  Bronaugh,  Mo., 
and  Andy  Flaxbeard,  Kocky  Comfort,  Mo.:  The  twelve  American 
citizens  who  acted  as  jurors  in  the  case. 

THE  DEFENDANTS 

Kev.  Theodore  C.  Walker:  Senior  editor  of  THE  MENACE. 
Marvin  Brown:  Managing  editor  of  THE  MENACE. 
Wilbur  F.  Phelps:  Business  manager  of  THE  MENACE. 
Bruce  M.  Phelps:   Superintendent  of  the  plant. 

THEEE  STAE  WITNESSES  FOE  THE  PEOSECUTION 

Landry  Harwood  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.:  A  leading  official  in 
the  Knights  of  Columbus  organization  who  furnished  copies  of  THE 
MENACE  to  District  Attorney  for  use  in  prosecution.  Mr.  Harwood 
admitted  that  as  officer  in  the  state  organization  of  Knights  he  had 
authorized  the  publication  for  general  circulation  of  Paul  Bakewell's 
letter  to  the  Washington  authorities  demanding  action  against  THE 
MENACE. 

Edward  V.  P.  Schneiderhahn  of  St.  Louis,  Mo. :  A  leading  officer 
of  the  St.  Louis  branch  of  American -Federation  of  Catholic  Societies, 
who  testified  that  he  had  furnished  Paul  Bakewell  copies  of  THE 
MENACE  to  be  used  in  securing  government  action.  He  had  conferred 
with  Judge  O'Neil  Eyan,  another  leading  Romanist,  about  action 
against  THE  MENACE. 

Miss  Nonie  J.  Wilson:  Stenographer  to  Paul  Bakewell,  the 
prominent  Knight  of  Columbus  who  boasted  that  he  had  secured  gov- 
ernment action  against  THE  MENACE.  She  testified  that  she  was  a 
Eoman  Catholic  and  had  secured  for  Mr.  Bakewell,  copies  of  Mr. 
Crowley's  book. 

TWO  WITNESSES  FOE  THE  DEFENSE 
Jeremiah  J.  Crowley:    A  former  priest  in  the   Eoman  church 
and  author  of  the  book  containing  a  quotation  upon  which  one  count 
of  the  indictment  was  found. 

Prof.  Walter  Miller  of  Columbia,  Mo.;  Head  of  Latin  depart- 
ment in  the  University  of  Missouri,  who  was  present,  to  translate  and 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  15 

read  from  Liguori's  and  Gury's  Moral  Theology,  to  establish  the 
contention  of  the  defense  that  the  obscene  character  of  the  teaching* 
of  these  Roman  Catholic  authorities  on  moral  theology  must  neces- 
sarily prove  a  demoralizing  influence  on  the  priesthood. 

IN   THE   BACKGROUND    ON   THE    SIDE    OF    THE 
PROSECUTION 

Among  those  present  not  called  to  testify  by  the  prosecution 
were  Paul  Bakewell  and  a  number  of  prominent  Knights  of  Columbus 
and,  other  Eomanists. 

IN  THE  BACKGROUND  FOR  THE  DEFENSE 

The  defense  had  ready  and  waiting  to  testify  to  the  high  stand- 
ing and  character  of  the  defendants  and  to  the  fact  that  in  their 
judgment  THE  MENACE  was  moral  and  not  obscene  or  objectionable. 
The  leading  clergymen  and  business  men  of  Aurora.  The  court, 
however,  ruled  that  the  character  of  the  defendants  and  that  of  th« 
publication  was  immaterial. 

Time,  January  llth  to  14th,  1916. 

Place,  Joplin,  Mo. 

SIGNIFICANT  CONTEMPORANEOUS  EVENT 
While  the  jury  was  deliberating  on  THE  MENACE  case,  the 
Protestant  women  of  Aurora,  Mo.,  the  home  of  the  defendants,  were 
holding  prayer  meetings  in  the  churches,  praying  for  the  acquittal 
of  the  editors  against  whom  the  Eoman  Catholics  had  instigated  this 
prosecution  in  the  true  historic  spirit  of  that  persecuting  church. 
The  night  of  the  fourteenth  when  the  news  of  the  acquittal  reached 
Aurora  there  was  general  rejoicing  in  the  town.  An  immense  crowd 
comprising  more  than  half  the  population  gathered  at  the  depot, 
headed  by  the  band  and  when  the  defendants  stepped  from  the  train 
they  were  royally  welcomed. 

THE  JURY 

The  jury  was  chosen  from  a  list  of  between  forty-five 
and  fifty  men,  drawn  by  the  government  officer  from  the  en- 
tire judicial  district.  Each  side,  of  course,  had  the  privilege 
of  making  the  number  of  challenges  prescribed  by  the  law. 
The  men  selected  were  as  intelligent  and  thoughtful  a  group 


16  THE  STOEY  OF  THE  MENACE  TEIAL 

of  sturdy  American  citizens  as  one  will  find  in  months,  either 
in  city  or  country  court  rooms.  They  were  men  who  realized 
the  solemn  duty  devolving  on  them,  and  judging  from  their 
close  and  intelligent  interest  in  everything  relating  to  the 
evidence  they  were  considering,  were  evidently  determined 
to  do  their  full  duty  as  citizens  of  a  great  Republic  dedicated 
to  human  rights  and  justice. 

THE  OPENING  OF  THE  CASE 

In  the  opening  of  the  case  for  the  prosecution  and 
throughout  the  trial,  Mr.  Francis  M.  Wilson,  the  government 
attorney,  resolutely  maintained  that  the  characters  of  the 
defendants  and  that  of  the  publications,  the  truth  of  the 
charges,  or  the  intent  or  purpose  of  the  defendants  in  pub- 
lishing the  matter  complained  of  must  not  be  taken  into 
consideration  as  it  was  all  immaterial.  On  this  point  he  said : 
"It  makes  no  difference  whether  the  hand  that  penned  each 
and  every  one  of  these  articles  which  I  have  read  to  the  jury,  was 
a  hand  guided  by  hurtful  or  good  purposes:  that  is  not  material. 
Upon  the  other  hand,  whether  the  motive  is  a  good  or  a  bad  motive, 
whether  the  article  is  true  or  untrue,  that  is  not  an  issue  in  this 
case. ' ' 

Mr.  Wilson  insisted  that  the  government  did  not  con- 
tend that  THE  MENACE  was  an  obscene  paper  or  that  Mr. 
Crowley's  book  was  obscene,  but  he  held  that  the  brief  ex- 
cerpts which  he  read  and  the  short  articles  given  in  the  in- 
dictment came  within  the  meaning  of  the  law.  His  position 
had,  indeed,  been  outlined  the  day  previous  in  an  interview 
published  in  the  Joplin  papers.  In  this  interview  as  well 
as  in  the  court  room  Mr.  Wilson  insisted  that  Roman  Cath- 
olics had  not  instigated  the  prosecution.  Taking  this  stand 
was  one  of  the  glaring  blunders  of  the  prosecution  which 
gave  Mr.  Sheppard  the  opportunity  to  puncture  the  false 
claim,  this  he  did  to  the  queen's  taste,  when  he  showed  that 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  17 

of  the  millions  of  American  citizens  who  weekly  read  THE 
MENACE  the  only  persons  the  government  had  been  able  to 
introduce,  as  witnesses  who  had  received  the  paper  through 
the  mails  were  prominent  Koman  Catholics,  officers  in  the 
Knights  of  Columbus  or  in  the  other  great  politico-religious 
Boman  body,  The  American  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies. 

One  of  the  most  significant  facts  clearly  established  by 
the  trial  was  the  very  thing  the  government  did  not  wish 
the  public  to  know.  As  has  been  indicated,  Mr.  Wilson  tried 
vainly  to  cover  up  the  trail  of  the  serpent,  but  unhappily  he 
was  fatally  handicapped  as  the  only  persons  whom  the  gov- 
ernment had  been  able  to  obtain  complaints  from  among 
those  receiving  THE  MENACE  through  the  mails  were  lead- 
ing servitors  of  the  papal  sovereign  on  the  Tiber. 

Here  we  found  ourselves  meeting 

AN  OLD  FACE  UNDER  A  NEW  BONNET 

Here  was  present  the  old  spirit  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Inquisition  masquerading  under  new  names  and  peering  at 
us  from  a  new  bonnet.  Here  it  was  clearly  shown  that 
Knights  of  Columbus  aided  by  a  prominent  officer  of  the 
American  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies  instigated,  aided 
and  abetted  the  prosecution. 

Mr.  Wilson's  heroic  effort  to  create  the  impression  that 
the  government  was  not  acting  under  the  prodding  of  polit- 
ical Romanism  was  a  pitiful  failure.  He  overshot  the  mark, 
like  the  player  queen  in  Hamlet  he  "protested  too  much," 
as  the  following  extracts  from  the  stenographic  report  of 
the  trial  clearly  show  (Mr.  Landry  Harwood,  a  leading  wit- 


18  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TEIAL 

ness  for  the  prosecution,  is  being  examined  by  Mr.  J.   I. 
Sheppard.) 

THE  HAND  OF  ROME  REVEALED 

Q.  In  addition  to  being  a  member  of  the  Catholic  church,  are 
you  also  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus? 

SENATOR  WILSON:  Wait  a  minute,  if  the  court  please.  We  object 
to  that  for  the  reason  that  there  is  no  such  issue  presented  in  his 
case.  It  has  no  more  relevancy  whether  he  is  a  Knight  of  Columbus 
than  it  would  have  if  I  were  upon  the  stand  and  testified  that  I 
was  a  Mason  and  a  Knight  Templar;  and  therefore  it  is  not  a 
proper  subject  of  inquiry  whether  he  is  a  Knight  of  Columbus — 
no  more  so  than  the  fact  that  I  am  a  Mason  and  Knight  Templar. 

THE  COURT:  From  what  has  been  stated  here  by  counsel  in  their 
opening  statements,  and  what  is  embodied  in  the  exhibits  and  the 
charges,  this  witness  testifying  to  the  matter  of  having  received  this 
particular  copy  of  the  paper  through  the  mails  as  a  witness,  and  as 
bearing  upon  his  relations  to  the  case,  this  question  will  be  indulged 
to  a  reasonable  extent,  merely  to  show  his  interest  in  the  case,  but 
not  going  into  any  special  details. 

A.  The  question  was  whether  I  am  a  member  of  the  Knights 
of  Columbus? 

-Q.     Yes,  sir. 

A.     I  am. 

Q.     Do  you  hold  any  office  in  that  organization  in  this  state? 

A.     I  do. 

Q.     What  is  it?    A.     I  am  State  Deputy. 

Q.  That  is  organizer?  A.  I  am  the  head  officer  of  the 
Knights  of  Columbus  in  the  State  of  Missouri. 

Q.  I  hand  you  a  booklet  marked  exhibit  209  and  ask  you  if 
you  are  the  Landry  Harwood  whose  name  appears  on  that  as  State 
Deputy? 

A.      I  am. 

Q.  Was  that  booklet  issued  under  your  authorization  or  direc- 
tion? A.  Issued  under  my  authorization,  yes,  sir.  I  don't  know 
that  I  directed  it.  I  knew  that  it  was  being  issued. 

Q.     Was  it  circulated  by  you  or  under  your  direction? 

A.     Through  the  State  Secretary,  yes,  sir. 

Q.     That  is  what  I  mean:  under  your  direction.      A.     Yes,  »ir. 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE  TRIAL  19. 

Q.    Who  prepared  it  for  circulation! 

SENATOR  WILSON  :  If  the  court  please,  we  think  that  after  having 
shown1  his  relationship  as  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus, 
and  that  he  is  a  Roman  Catholic,  that  hardly  anything  he  may  have 
prepared  under  his  duties  as  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus, 
a  member  of  that  organization,  would  be  competent  for  any  purpose 
in  this  case,  inasmuch  as  nothing  that  he  may  have  done  would  in 
any  wise  be  relevant  in  any  other  capacity. 

THE  COURT:  I  don't  know  but  that  this  is  a  preliminary  ques- 
tion. I  have  nothing  yet  to  pass  upon. 

A.    Do  you  mean,  who  wrote  the  article,  or  who  had  it  printed  f 

Q.  Under  whose^you  say  it  was  prepared  under  your  direction : 
who  prepared  it?  A.  You  asked  me  whether  I  had  it  sent  out. 

Q.  And  I  asked  you  if  it  was  prepared  under  your  authoriza- 
tion. A.  I  don't  want  to  be  technical,  Mr.  Sheppard.  I  didn't 
have  this  written  or  ask  or  direct  that  it  be  written  or  have  it  pre- 
pared for  circulation. 

Q.  What  I  want  to  get  at  is  to  find  out  just  by  whom  it  was 
prepared  and  what  part  you  took  in  it.  A.  You  mean  as  to  what 
part  I  had  in  having  Mr.  Bakewell  circulate  this  letter  f 

Q.  But  who  put  it  in  this  form  to  circulate  among  the  people. 
A.  I  think  the  pamphlet,  entitled,  "Paul  Bakewell 's  Letter  to 
Postmaster-General  Albert  S.  Burleson"  states  on  the  cover  that  it 
was  issued  under  the  auspices  of  the  Lakeport  Bureau  of  the  Missouri 
State  Council  of  the  Knights-  of  Columbus,  under  the  Lakeport 
Bureau. 

SENATOR  WILSON:  I  am  going  to  object  to  that  for  another 
reason,  and  that  is  that  counsel  is  asking  the  witness  to  detail  the 
contents  of  a  book  or  open  letter  addressed  to  the  postmaster-general 
of  the  United  States,  alleged  to  have  'been  written  by  Mr.  Paul 
Bakewell,  who  is  here  in  this  court  room  as  a  witness  and  able  to 
testify  if  it  be  proper  at  all  as  to  its  contents.  Now  the  contents 
of  such  a  book  or  what  may  be  in  the  book,  the  government  holds 
to  be  irrelevant  to  this  issue. 

THE  COURT:  He  has  been  asking  now  what  part  he  had  in  pre- 
paring this  pamphlet  for  use.  Up  to  date  there  has  been  no  call  for 
any  word  as  to  what  it  contains  nor  by  whom  written  or  anything 
about  it. 


20  THE  STOfiY   OF   ±HE   MENACE   TEIAl 

SENATOR  WILSON:  We  have  no  objection  to  his  merely  stating 
his  connection  with  it. 

A.  (Continuing)  After  the  letter  had  been  sent,  or  copies  of 
it  had  been  printed,  it  was  called  to  my  attention  by  some  officer 
of  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis, 
just  whom  I  cannot  recall,  with  the  suggestion  that  it  was  advisable 
to  have  copies  of  this  printed  and  circulated.  I  agreed  and  that 
was  done.  It  was  printed,  my  recollection  is,  in  the  city  of  St. 
Louis— I  am  quite  certain  that  is  a  fact — and  sent  out  from  the 
State  Secretary's  office,  John  T.  Nugent  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 

Q.  That  letter  that  you  have  referred  to  there  had  been  first 
sent  to  the  postmaster- general,  Mr.  Burlesonf  A.  So  my  informa- 
tion is. 

Q.  And  then  you  concluded  it  was  advisable  and  you  were  so 
advised  by  other  members  of  that  organization  that  it  would  be  a 
good  idea  to  publish  this  letter  and  circulate  it!  A.  That  is  correct. 

Q.  For  the  purpose  of  coercing  the  government  into  indicting 
these  meji? 

SENATOR  WILSON  :  I  object  to  that.  There  is  no  coercion  in  that — 

A.     (Interrupting)  Most  certainly  not. 

SENATOB  WILSON:  I  object  to  it  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a  high- 
ly improper  question.  There  is  no  coercion, —  .  : 

THE  COURT:  The  witness  has  answered. 

Q.  The  letter  was  complaining  of  THE  MENACE  generally,  not 
any  particular  article  in  THE  MENACE,  and  about  the  book  that  I 
hold  in  my  hand.  A.  The  letter,  as  I  interpret  it,  Mr.  Sheppard, 
is  a  consideration  of  the  law  involving — 

SENATOR  WILSON:  Just  a  minute — 

MR.  SHEPPARD:  Just  answer  what,  if  anything  it  dealt  with. 

A.  (Continuing)  It  dealt  with  the  law  in  regard  to  the  mails, 
affording  mail  facilities  to  publications  such  as  described  in  the  letter. 

Q.  Now,  but  you  haven't  answered  my  question.  Doesn't  it 
refer  to  THE  MENACE  newspaper  alone  and  to  this  book,  to  this  book 
also  in  particular?  A.  It  has  in  there  statements  about  THE  MEN- 
ACE and  sections  of  the  criminal  code  and  decisions  of  the  United 
States  courts  involving  mail  facilities. 

Q.  Calling  on  the  postmaster-general  to  exclude  THE  MENACE 
from  the  mails?  Doesn't  it  request  that  that  be  donet 

(No  answer) 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MENACE  TRIAL  21 

Q.  And  requesting  him  if  he  had  no  authority  to  do  that,  to 
submit  the  book  that  he  sent  along,  and  the  copy  of  THE  MENACE  to 
the  attorney-general  of  the  United  States  for  action  by  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice,  if  possible. 

SENATOR  WILSON  :  We  object  to  all  of  that. 

THE  COURT  :  I  understand— 

A.  (Interrupting).  lie  requests  that  this  matter  be  called 
to  the  attention  of  the  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States  who 
may  see  to  it  that  the  publication  of  THE  MENACE  and  the  book 

A.  (Interrupting)  That  he  initialed  for  identification,  and 
sentf  A.  My  recollection  is  that  is  in  here.  I  just  turned  to  it 
right  now. 

Q.     And  that  he  had  proof  that  it  was  sent  through  the  mails? 

A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  You  were  here  before  the  grand  jury  at  the  time  this  in- 
dictment was  returned  f  A.  I  was. 

Q.  You  subscribed,  did  you  not,  to  THE  MENACE  for  the  pur- 
pose of  watching  its  columns  to —  A.  (Interrupting)  The  pub- 
lication was  called  to  my  attention  by  Mr.  Frank  Gummings  of 
Joplin.  Mr.  Cummings  said  that  he  would  have  the  paper  gent 
to  me,  and  he  did. 

Q.  And  you  watched  it  and  read  it  for  the  purpose  of  finding 
something  upon  which  to  base  an  indictment  or  something  upon 
which  you  could  complain  to  the  government  and  get  it  excluded 
from  the  mails?  A.  That  is  correct  in  general,  yes,  sir. 

Q.  What  was  the  name  of  the  man  you  said  subscribed  for  the 
paper  for  you,  some  Joplin  manf  A.  Frank  Cummings. 

Q.    Is  he  also  a  Knight  of  Columbus  and  a  Catholic  f      A.     Yes, 
sir. 
FUKTHER  PROOF  THAT  ROME  INSTIGATED  THE 

PROSECUTION 

Mr.  Landry  Harwood,  the  head  of  the  Knights  of  Co- 
lumbus of  Missouri,  was  followed  on  the  stand  by  Mr.  Edward 
V.  P.  Schneiderhahn,  who  stated  that  he  was  an  officer  in 
the  St.  Louis  branch  of  the  American  Federation  of  Cath- 
olic Societies.  This  star  witness  for  the  prosecution  testified 
under  the  questioning  of  Mr.  Sheppard  as  follows : 


22  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

Q.  What  did  you  do,  Mr.  Sehneiderhahn,  with  the  paper  that 
government  counsel  has  passed  you  and  identified  as  having  been 
received  by  you  through  the  mails,  after  you  got  it! 

A.  I  constructed  a  file,  Mr.  Sheppard,  when  the  papers,  THE 
MENACE  copies,  began  coming  to  me.  That  was  in  April,  in  the  be- 
ginning of  April  of  1914.  I  laid  them  by  for  reference. 

Q.  What  did  you  finally  do  with  it.  Anyone  call  for  it  finally? 
A.  The  persons  that  I  recall  coming  to  see  me  with  reference  to 
THE  MENACE  were  Judge  O'Neil  Eyan  and  Mr.  Bakewell. 

Q.  Who  is  hef  A.  Judge  O'Neil  Ryan  is  an  attorney  in  the 
city  of  St.  Louis. 

Q.     A  Eoman  Catholic.        A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  A  Knight  of  Columbus?  A.  That  I  don't  know.  Mr. 
Bakewell — • 

Q.  (Interrupting)  Who  is  he?  A.  He  is  an  attorney.  He 
is  present  here. 

Q.     He  is  present  here?      A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.     A  Knight  of  Columbus?      A.     I  do  not  know. 

Q.  And  these  gentlemen  are  they  members  of  this  society,  that 
is  the  Federation  of  Catholic  Societies,  that  you  spoke  of? 

A.  I  don't  know  because  I  do  not  know  the  names  of  all  the 
societies.  There  are  about — well,  between  seventy  and  eighty;  they 
may  fluctuate,  but  they  are  not  all  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis;  about 
that  many  that  are  affiliated  with  the  Federation. 

Q.  Let  me  ask  you:  did  you  finally  turn  this  paper  over  to 
Judge  O'Neil  Eyan  and  Mr.  Bakewell?  A.  I  am  not  sure  about 
the  identical  copies  I  turned  over.  I  turned  over  a  number  of  copies 
to  the  postoffice  inspector,  but  I  don't  remember  how  many;  I  think 
there  were  about  ten  in  January,  this  last  past  January,  1915. 

Q.  You  turned  them  over  to  the  inspector  after  being  inter- 
viewed by  Mr.  Bakewell  and  Mr.  Eyan?  A.  I  don't  know  who  was 
the  gentleman,  because  I  am  not  clear  as  to  the  conversation  with 
Judge  O'Neil  Eyan,  but  it  was  sometime  after  that. 

Q.     That  is  what  I  say.       A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  It  was  after  that  you  turned  them  over  to  the  Inspector? 
A.  Oh,  yes. 

Q.  Did  he  tell  you  he  had  been  referred  to  you  by  Mr.  Bake- 
well  and  Mr.  Eyan?  A.  I  don't  remember  his  conversation,  Mr. 
Sheppard.  He  said  to  me  that  he  had  learned  that  I  had  a  file,  and 


THE  STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  23 

asked  for  certain  papers,  and  I  had  the  file  there,  I  had  it  only  for 
reference,  and  I  give  him  the  papers. 

Q.  When  Ryan  and  Bakewell  were  with  you  did  you  go  over  the 
file,  you  three  lawyers!  A.  There  were  particular  copies  that  Mr. 
O'Neil  Ryan  wanted  to  see,  but  I  don't  remember  which,  Mr. 
Sheppard. 

Q.  At  the  time  you  and  Mr.  Bakewell  and  Mr  Ryan,  you  three 
lawyers,  conferred  about  these  papers,  did  you  read  them  or  some 
of  them?  A.  No,  Mr.  Sheppard,  it  is  not  correct  that  we  three 
conferred.  I  saw  separately  Judge  O'Neil  Ryan  and  Mr.  Bakewell 
separately. 

Q.     They  came  on  separate  occasions?      A.     Yes,  sir. 

Q.  First  which  one  camel  A.  I  could  not  tell  the  exact  time; 
I  think  it  was  about  in  November,  1914,  but  I  can't  identify  those 
dates. 

Q.  When  Ryan  came,  did  you  and  he  read  the  same  articles  in 
the  paper?  A.  No,  I  just  had  the  file  there  and  let  him  have 
•his  inspection,  what  he  wanted,  whatever  he  said.  I  am,  of  course, 
a  lawyer,  and  I  won't  want  to  go  into  any  statement  of  his  object 
declared  to  me,  and  I  let  him  have  the  files. 

Q.  He  did  say  to  you,  did  he  not,  that  he  wanted  to  look  at 
these  papers  with  a  view  of  determining  whether  or  not  THE  MENACE 
and  THE  MENACE  people  could  be  prosecuted,  or  the  paper  put  out 
of  the  mails? 

SENATOR  WILSON:  I  object  to  that  for  two  reasons:  If  he  con- 
sulted as  a  client,  it  is  privileged,  and— 

MB.  SHEPPARD:  I  will  withdraw  the  question. 

»       Q.    Mr.  Bakewell  came  to  see  you  either  before  or  after  Mr. 
Ryan?    A.     Yee,  sir. 

Q.  And  you  showed  him  the  papers,  did  you?  A.  Yes,  I  let 
him  have  an  inspection.  Whether  he  came  personally  or  sent  some 
one,  or  Judge  O'Neil  Ryan  came  for  it,  I  am  not  positive  about 
that,  Mr.  Sheppard.  That  is  more  than  a  year  ago.  But  I  know 
that  both  of  the  gentlemen  spoke  to  me,  and  I  am  trying  to  give 
accurate  information  as  nearly  as  I  can. 

Q.    You  know,  being  an  active  member  of  these  Roman  CatholU 


24  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

societies,  that  Bakewell  has  been  for  some  years  interested  in  trying 
to  get  THE  MENACE  out  of  the  mails,  don't  you? 

SENATOR  WILSON:  We  object  to  that. 

MB.  SHEPPAED:  It  is  merely  preliminary. 

THE  COURT:  That  can  only  affect  Mr.  Bakewell  himself,  and  at 
this  time  is  immaterial. 

MR.  SHEPPARD-.  We  except. 

Q.     Did  you  at  the  time  confer  with  Mr.  Bakewell  or  at  any 
time  before  the  returning  of  this  indictment  with  reference  to  (getting 
THE  MENACE  debarred  from  the  mails  of  the  country? 
A.     I  had  one  conversation  with  him. 

SENATOR  WILSON:  This  has  reference  to  the  barring  from  the 
mails,  and  the  postoffice  department.  That  and  the  legal  arm  of  the 
government  are  two  separate  and  distinct  branches. 

THE  COURT:  The  court  will  have  to  instruct  the — 

MR.  SHEPPARD:  (Interrupting)  That  can  be  answered  yes  or 
no,  Mr.  Schneiderhahn. 

THE  WITNESS  :  I  won 't  be  sure  about  that. 

THE  COURT:  The  question  is  whether  you  did. 

THE  WITNESS:  Miss  Stenographer }  will  you  have  that  last  ques- 
tion repeated  to  me. 

(Question  read  by  the  official  reporter.) 

Q.  (Continuing)  Or  its  editors  indicted.  A.  Mr.  Sheppard, 
I  can  not  answer  that  just  yes  or  no. 

Q.  Well,  answer  it  in  your  own  way.  A.  I  had  one  conversa- 
tion with  Mr.  Bakewell  that  I  remember,  at  Mr.  Bakewell 's  office, 
and  he  was  looking  up  the  federal  laws  on  the  question  of  the 
character  of  mail  that  can  be  excluded  for  obscenity,  and  by  virtue 
of  my  position  I  offered  to  give  him  certain  data,  which  thereafter 
I  gave  him,  as  to  the  United  States  laws.  And  that  is  all  I  knew 
about  the  matter. 

Q.  Let  me  ask  you:  at  that  time,  special  reference  was  made 
to  THE  MENACE,  was  it  not?  A.  Oh,  yes,  yes. 

ANOTHER  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  TO  THE  AID  OF  THE 
PROSECUTION 

The  next  witness  for  the  prosecution  was  Miss  Nome  J. 
Wilson,  the  stenographer  of  Paul  Bakewell,  the  prominent 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE  TBIAL  25 

Knight  of  Columbus  and  Romanist  who  boasted  that  he  had 
secured  the  indictment  against  THE  MENACE.  It  was  on  the 
testimony  of  these  three  prominent  Romanists,  Harwood, 
Schneiderhahn  and  Miss  Nome  J.  Wilson,  that  the  prose- 
cution depended  for  proving  that  the  papers  and  the  book 
mentioned  in  the  indictment  had  been  received  through  the 
mails.  Miss  Wilson,  in  answer  to  a  question  from  the  prose- 
cuting attorney  stated  that  she  and  Paul  Bakewell  were  both 
members  of  the  Catholic  church.  The  following  testimony 
was  illicited  under  the  cross  examination  of  Mr.  Sheppard. 

Q.     Did  the  circular  advertising  the  book  come  with  the  bookf 

A.     I  think  I  did  receive  some  circular,  with  the  books. 

Q.  I  hand  you  a  paper  marked  Exhibit  210  and  ask  you  if  that 
is  the  circular  that  you  received  at  the  time  the  books  were  received 
by  you.  A.  I  don't  remember  it. 

Q.     You  don't  remember  it!       A.     I  don't  remember  it. 

Q.  Do  you  remember,  Miss  Wilson,  of  the  circular  that  you 
received  containing  a  challenge  to  anyone,  either  Protestant  or 
Catholic,  to  prove  any  statement  in  the  book  untrue  and  offering  ten 
thousand  dollars  to  the  person  that  would  do  itf 

SENATOR  WILSON:  If  the  Court  please— 

MB.  SHEPPARD:  Did  you  understand  my  question f 

• 
A.     I  lost  track  of  it. 

Q.  Do  you  remember  seeing  on  this  circular  a  challenge  to 
Borne  or  to  anyone  to  show  that  any  statement  made  in  the  book  was 
untrue  and  offering  to  pay  to  any  person  who  would  find  an  un- 
truthful statement  in  it  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  f 

SENATOR  WILSON:  I  object  to  that  as  incompetent  and  im- 
material. 

THE  COURT:  Sustained. 

MR.  SHEPPARD:  We  except.  And  I  offer  to  prove  by  this  witness 
that  the  circular  she  says  she  received  contained  that  statement — 

THE  COURT:  Objection  sustained. 


26  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

MB.  SHEPPARD:     I  didn't  notice  that  he  objected  to  the  offer. 

THE  COUET:  I  understand;  that  is  a  mere  repetition  of  the 
question. 

ME.  SHEPPARD:  I  want  an  exception. 

Q.  What  did  you  do  with  the  books,  Miss  Wilson,  after  you 
got  them?  A.  As  soon  as  the  mail  man  handed  them  to  me,  I  took 
them  immediately  to  Mr.  Paul  Bakewell's  room,  and  I  unwrapped 
them  in  his  presence  and  in  the  presence  of  his  brother,  Mr.  George 
Bakewell. 

Q.  And  do  you  know  what  became  of  them  thereafter.  A.  One 
copy  was  sent  to  the  postmaster-general  at  Washington,  and  the  other 
copy  Mr.  Bakewell  kept. 

Q.  Will  you  look  at  this  (indicating)  and  see  whether  this  is 
the  copy  that  Avas  sent  to  the  postmaster-general  at  Washington? 
A.  It  was  initialed.  I  initialed  both  copies  so  I  can't  tell  which 
was  sent  and  which  wasn't.  I  initialed  them  both  in  the  same  way. 

Q.  So  you  wouldn't  know?  A.  I  wouldn't  know  one  from 
the  other. 

Q.     One  was  sent  to  Postmaster-General  Burleson?    A.     Yes,  sir. 
Q.    And  one  Mr.  Bakewell  kept?      A.     Yes,  sir. 
Q.     Do  you  know  whether  he  »till  has  that  in  his  possession? 
A.    I  don't  know. 

Q.  This  (indicating)  is  one  of  the  two  copies?  A.  If  it  has 
my  initials  in  it. 

Q.     I  wish  you  would  look.      A.     Yes,  that  is  one  of  the  books. 
Q.     You  say  you  sent  for  them,  at  Mr.  Bakewell's  direction?  He 
furnished  the  money  to  pay  for  them,  did  he? 

A.    He  did. 

Q.     How  did  you  send  the  book  to  the  postmaster-general? 
A.     Through  the  mail. 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MENACE  TRIAL  27 

THE  OPENING  ADDRESS  FOB  THE  DEFENSE 

Mr.  Sheppard's  opening  address  to  the  jury  was  like  his 
closing  appeal,  a  masterpiece  in  its  clarity  of  reasoning,  sin- 
cerity and  directness.  He  opened  by  showing  that  THE 
MENACE  had  been  started  almost  five  years  ago  as  an  anti- 
Romanists  publication  but  that  it  did  not  attack  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  Roman  church,  it  opposed  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Political  Machine.  He  read  the  opening  editorial  or 
salutatory  written  by  the  venerable  and  universally  loved 
Congregational  clergyman,  Rev.  Theodore  C.  Walker,  who 
from  the  foundation  of  the  publication  has  been  its  senior 
editor.  He  showed  that  the  aim  and  purpose  of  the  paper, 
or  the  chart  as  outlined  in  the  opening  article  of  its  first 
issue  has  been  consistently  followed. 

In  an  earnest  and  convincing  manner  he  outlined  what 
the  defense  proposed  to  prove.  He  insisted  that  certain 
facts  must  be  taken  into  consideration  if  the  intended  objects 
of  the  law  makers  who  framed  the  statute  was  to  be  consid- 
ered. The  government  wanted  to  take  a  few  words,  sen- 
tences or  paragraphs  from  long  articles  and  without  per- 
mitting the  jury  to  know  the  context  which  was  necessary 
not  only  to  show  whether  the  language  used  was  justified, 
but  also  to  show  whether  or  not  the  language  complained  of 
was  in  its  setting  moral  or  immoral — whether  the  effect 
would  be  such  as  to  lead  the  reader  to  active  efforts  for  the 
purification  and  elevation  of  society  or  whether  the  effect 
would  be  debasing  on  the  imagination.  His  insistence,  on 
the  necessity  of  the  whole  article  being  placed  in  evidence, 
as  essential  to  an  intelligent  determination  on  the  part  of 
the  jury  was  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  compelling 
features  of  his  opening  statement  and  we  are  inclined  to  be- 
lieve that  it  impressed  Judge  Van  Valkenburgh  to  such  a  de- 


28  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

gree  that  he  added  matter  from  the  context  to  the  words,  sen- 
tences and  paragraphs  in  the  indictment  and  this  addition, 
meagre  though  it  was,  instantly  emphasized  in  a  bold  and  im- 
pressive manner  the  high  and  noble  purpose  of  the  articles 
and,  though  the  paragraphs  admitted  were  only  small  addi- 
tions, they  were  enough  to  prove  a  staggering  blow  to  the 
prosecution. 

The  prosecution,  in  addition  to  the  testimony  of  the 
witnesses  already  mentioned,  called  to  the  stand  a  number 
of  citizens  of  Aurora,  to  establish  the  positions  of  the  de- 
fendants as  officers  in  the  company  publishing  the  paper,  or 
as  editors  of  THE  MENACE;  also  for  the  purpose  of  proving 
that  THE  MENACE  was  deposited  in  the  mails. 

The  defense  called  to  the  stand  three  or  four  witnesses 
out  of  a  great  number  of  prominent  people  who  were  present 
and  ready  to  aid  in  proving,  the  high  purpose  and  good  faith 
of  the  defendants,  the  truth  of  the  charges  made  in  the  ar- 
ticles complained  of,  the  obscene  character  of  the  moral 
theology  approved  by  Rome  and  whose  influence  on  the  minds 
of  the  priest  could  not  be  otherwise  than  demoralizing,  and 
the  importance  to  the  cause  of  sound  morality  of  the  ar- 
ticles published  in  THE  MENACE  against  portions  of  which, 
the  indictment  was  leveled. 

Under  the  narrow  construction  insisted  on  by  the  court, 
however,  these  witnesses  were  not  permitted  to  testify  on  the 
various  points,  which  the  defense  held  to  be  material  and 
important  to  the  cause  of  sound  morality  and  the  high  ends 
of  justice. 

After  the  evidence  had  been  offered  and  the  closing  ar- 
guments made  by  the  attorneys  on  both  sides,  Judge  Van 
Yalkenburgh  delivered  an  extended  charge  to  the  jury,  oc- 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE  TRIAL  29 

cupying  one  hour  and  twenty  minutes,  in  which  he  ad- 
monished the  jurors  to  carefully  weigh  the  evidence  as  it 
related  to  each  of  the  several  counts.  The  jurors  seemed 
deeply  impressed  with  the  charge  and  after  several  hours  of 
deliberation,  returned  a  verdict  of  acquittal  on  each  of  the 
seven  counts. 

Thus  in  this  great  battle  in  Rome's  campaign  against 
the  constitutional  guarantees,  of  freedom  of  religious  discus- 
sion and  freedom  of  the  press,  the  cause  of  democracy  tri- 
umphed over  the  papal  forces. 


HON.  J.  L.  M'NATT 


SPEECH   OF   HON.  J.   L.   M'NATT 


Delivered  to  the  Jury  at  Joplin,  Mo.,  January  14,  1916,  In 

Defense  of  The  Menace  and  Its  Staff  Who  Were 

Charged  With  Sending  Obscene  Matter 

Through  the  United  States  Mails. 

If  the  court  please,  gentlemen  of  the  jury:  I  am  glad  of  the 
opportunity  to  represent  these  defendants  in  a  case  of  this  kind, 
for  it  means  much  to  them,  as  my  friends  and  neighbors,  whose 
liberty  is  here  placed  in  jeopardy;  but  it  means  still  more  to  you  as 
citizens  of  this  country  to  be  right  in  your  verdict  in  this  ease,  for 
the  principles  involved  in  this  prosecution  are  of  the  gravest  and 
greatest  importance,  to  every  citizen  that  lives  under  the  American 
flag.  Therefore  I  am  glad  to  talk  to  you  in  my  weak  way  about 
what  I  conceive,  under  the  rulings  of  the  court,  is  your  duty  as 
jurors,  to  reason  together  and  discuss  this  testimony,  with  a  view  of 
assisting  you  in  arriving  at  a  righteous  verdict. 

I  trust,  gentlemen,  that  certain  propositions  have  been  thor- 
oughly established  in  your  mind,  for  you  have  heard  them  threshed 
out  here  pro  and  con,  and  one  of  them  is,  as  His  Honor  has  so  strictly 
indicated,  that  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  charges  contained  in  these 
counts,  or,  rather  the  facts  that  were  printed  in  THE  MENACE  news- 
papers and  in  the  book  called  "The  Pope"  condemning  the  Catholic 
priesthood,  upon  which  this  indictment  is  founded,  the  truth  or 
falsity  of  them,  I  say,  as  far  as  you  are  concerned,  should  not  in 
any  way  influence  your  judgment  in  this  case.  While  we  were  ready 
to  prove  the  truth  of  publications,  His  Honor  ruled  it  was  im- 
material. 

That  being  granted  then,  I  am  going  to  ask  you  as  reason- 
able men,  in  considering  this  testimony,  to  be  as  charitable  as  the 
circumstances  now  demand  that  you  should  be,  and  so  far  as  any 
suspicion  that  you  may  have  as  to  these  articles,  disclosing  such  a 


34  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

horrible  condition  in  the  priesthood,  being  untrue,  be  removed  from 
your  minds ;  and  while  it  is  true  we  don 't  like  to  believe  such  ^things 
do  and  can  exist,  in  this  civilized  age,  yet  for  the  purpose  of  this 
case  you  should  look  at  these  articles  that  are  charged  to  be  obscene 
in  the  light  and  in  the  way  you  would  look  at  them,  if  you  personally 
knew  them  to  be  every  word  the  truth. 


Now,  then,  I  am  not  going  to  take  up  my  time  and  yours  in 
a  detailed  reading  of  what  the  court  admitted  in  testimony.  It  was 
not  only  what  the  distinguished  gentlemen  representing  the  govern- 
ment has  read  to  you  from  this  indictment.  You  know  that  many 
things  were  introduced  and  read  to  you  besides  the  excerpts  con- 
tained in  the  indictment;  they  were  presented  to  you  for  the  purpose 
of  enlightening  you  men  as  to  what  was  meant  by  these  articles 
charged  to  be  obscene,  and  what  the  object  and  purpose  and  the 
general  effect  these  articles  would  have  upon  the  person  that  read 
them.  Anything  is  obscene  or  not,  according  to  its  object  and  under- 
standing. Now,  bear  that  in  mind;  for  that  is  one  thing,  and  in 
fact  the  controlling  thing,  that  you  are  bound  to  consider;  and  you 
should  take  into  consideration  all  the  testimony  before  you,  in 
determining  what  the  probable  effect  the  reading  of  these  articles 
would  have  upon  a  person  of  ordinary  intelligence. 

Therefore,  starting  in  with  the  proposition  that  these  articles 
are  telling  the  truth,  and  that  you  are  to  consider  not  only  what  is 
set  out  in  the  indictment,  but  all  the  evidence  and  extraneous  matters 
that  the  court  has  admitted  to  come  to  you  from  the  witness  stand, 
so  you  may  judge  the  meaning  of  the  articles  and  their  object  and 
effect  upon  persons  reading  them,  then  let  us  see. 

I  will  adopt  the  definition  government's  counsel  has  given  the 
words  ' '  obscene,  lewd  and  lascivious, ' '  for  the  purpose  of  my  argu- 
ment, and  I  believe  he  is  right  in  saying  the  statute  under  which 
these  men  are  being  tried  for  a  felony  is  leveled  at  such  literature  as 
tends  to  deprave  or  degrade  the  morals  or  arouse  in  the  mind  of  the 
person  reading  it  lustful  and  evil  thoughts.  Let  us  see  if  any  of 
these  articles  could  have  that  effect.  Take  the  ' '  Little  Orphan 
Annie"  article,  Gentlemen,  and  I  apprehend  you  are  a  fair  repre- 
sentation of  the  million  and  a  half  of  honest,  God-fearing,  God- 
loving  people  who  read  this  article,  and  I  want  you  men  to  answer 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  35 

on  your  own  consciences  if  by  hearing  this  article  read,  your  morals 
have  been  degraded.  If  there  is  a  man  on  this  jury  whose  mind 
lies  in  the  direction  of  depravity,  who  looks  for  the  evil,  and  seeks 
the  vulgar  in  all  things,  if,  I  say  there  is  a  man  on  this  jury  that, 
after  ho  has  read  the  entire  story  contained  in  "Little  Orphan 
Annie,"  wherein  it  is  described  how  this  innocent  nun  was  so 
brutally  outraged,  if  it  arouses  in  your  mind  lustful  thoughts  and 
desires  that  would  tend  to  seduce  your  morals,  answer  me  by  your 
verdict  and  convict  these  men. 

Does  it  arouse  in  your  minds  the  lustful  or  evil  thought  that 
would  lead  you  astray t  Ah,  men,  I  know  you  better  than  that;  you 
are  not  that  kind  of  citizens,  the  effect  on  your  mind  when  you  read 
of  this  horrible  assault  is  one  of  Christian  sympathy  for  this  un- 
fortunate girl  who  was  so  foully  treated  by  the  person  she  had  a 
right  to  look  to  for  protection.  It  does  not  arouse  in  you  such  feel- 
ings as  would  tend  to  demoralize  your  character;  it  does  not  arouse 
in  you  feelings  of  lustful  desire;  but  it  does  arouse  in  your  minds 
and  hearts  a  feeling  of  regret  that  such  base  beings  as  this  priest 
are  permitted  to  live.  It  brings  to  you  men  the  same  feeling  that 
would  cause  father  or  husband  to  shoulder  his  gun  and  go  out  to 
seek  the  despoiler  of  womanhood.  Isn't  that  what  you  are  thinking 
about!  Why,  gentlemen  I  would  be  ashamed,  to  look  you  in  the 
face,  and  think  you  would  be  evil  minded  in  this  matter:  I  would 
not  have  the  courage  to  accuse  you  men  of  having  aroused  in  your 
minds,  from  reading  this  story,  a  lustful  desire  or  a  lascivious 
thought,  that  would  deprave  your  morals. 

Now,  you  can  go  clear  on  through  with  the  whole  of  these 
articles,  and  when  you  see  the  object,  none  of  them  has  an  effect  on 
the  mind  of  a  sane  man,  of  a  lustful  nature;  but  on  the  contrary 
when  you  read  what  these  articles  tell  you  is  the  true  condition,  your 
mind  is  aroused  with  thoughts  of  earnest  and  sincere  condemnation, 
and  your  prayers  are  that  these  evils  will  be  eventually  exterminated. 

Now,  I  have  adopted  the  government's  own  definition  of  the 
purpose  of  this  law— what  it  means— and  you  have  here  a  case  clear 
out  of  the  purpose  of  the  law.  You  can  go  article  by  article,  and 
you  can  see  that  the  articles  complained  about  by  the  government 


36  THE   STOEY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

as  being  unmailable,  only  carry  out  the  objects  of  this  wonderful 
publication  that  was  set  forth  as  the  platform  in  the  initial  number. 

PUBLICITY  A  CORRECTIVE  POWER 

It  has  continually,  as  these  articles  show,  held  up  to  the  public 
something  the  public  is  entitled  to  know;  and  when  that  is  done,  I 
say  the  morals  of  the  country,  instead  of  being  depraved  or  de- 
graded, will  have  been  uplifted  in  the  minds  of  all  sane  and  Christian 
people. 

Let  us  take  a  few  examples:  They  comment  more  specifically 
on  what  was  said  in  Mr.  Crowley's  book  about  the  priest  Thompson. 
Tihey  say  that  is  obscene  and  filthy;  if  so  the  article  shows  it  was 
taken  from  another  newspaper  of  general  and  daily  circulation. 
Therein  is  disclosed  a  history  of  the  prosecution  of  a  priest  named 
Thompson,  under  the  same  statute  these  men  are  placed  on  trial 
under,  to  answer  to  the  disgusting  charge  of  degrading  and  defiling 
the  mails  in  a  manner  that  makes  one  sick  at  heart  to  think  about. 

I  want  to  ask  you;  gentlemen,  if  a  man  in  high  official  posi- 
tion, a  priest  of  a  church?  who  is  intrusted  to  look  after  the  morals 
of  the  country  and  his  people — I  want  to  ask  you,  if  that  man  was 
guilty  of  that  conduct,  which  for  the  purpose  of  this  case  you  are 
bound  to  believe  he  was,  is  not  every  citizen,  regardless  of  his  re- 
ligious affiliations,  entitled  to  know  the  truth?  If  such  people  in 
this  world  insist  on  violating  both  laws  of  God  and  man,  in  high 
position,  how  else,  and  in  what  better  language,  what  milder  lan- 
guage, could  it  be  phrased,  than  was  used  by  Father  Crowley  in  his 
book?  Was  it  that  you  did  not  like  to  hear  itf  Of  course  you  did 
not  like  to  hear  it  read;  we  don't  like  to  believe  it,  we  don't  like 
to  think  such  things  could  be  possible;  we  don't  like  to  believe  that 
a  human  being  could  become  so  depraved  and  especially  one  high 
in  authority,  to  stoop  to  such  degrading  things.  But  does  it  arouse 
in  your  minds  a  lustful  desire  T  No,  gentlemen,  it  is  disgusting  to 
you,  and  you  are  willing  here  and  now  to  join  hands  with  not  only 
THE  MENACE  but  of  the  one  and  one-half  million  of  its  subscribers, 
as  referred  to  by  the  government,  to  help  stamp  out,  by  creating 
public  opinion  so  strong  that  no  man  will  dare  hold  such  high  posi- 
tion, and  play  such  hypocritical  part  in  his  life. 

So  when  we  see  that  the  object  and  effect  of  this  article  was 
to  give  public  opinion  a  chance  to  publicly  and  effectually  condemn 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  37 

guch  practices  of  shielding  priests  by  the  political  machinery  of  the 
Eoman  Catholic  church,  I  know  you  men  will  say  this  article  is  not 
only  free  from  censure  but  highly  commendable. 

COMPARISON  AN  EFFECTIVE  AID 

If  that  kind  of  literature  is  obscene,  I  can  call  your  attention 
to  illustrations  that  you  will  find  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  You  have 
all  read  that  book  of  the  Bible.  You  all  know  what  the  language 
meant  in  the  Thompson  article — so  you  all  know  what  the  language 
meant  when  the  description  was  made  in  the  Holy  Bible  of  Onan 
and  his  brother's  wife — 

MB.  WILSON:  (Interrupting)  In  view  of  the  ruling  of  the 
court  that  other  books  cannot  be  introduced,  I  desire  to  object  to 
that  as  a  matter  of  argument. 

THE  COUET:  The  court  will  have  to  instruct  the  jury  that  all 
readings  of  this  sort  are  outside  of  the  question,  because  this  book 
can  not  be  governed  or  judged  by  what  is  contained  in  any  other 
book. 

ME.  McNATT :  That  is  true,  in  a  sense  Your  Honor,  but  I 
have  never  known  an  argument  where  it  would  not  be  proper  to  draw 
illustrations  from  the  Bible. 

THE  COUBT:  Proceed. 

MR.  McNATT:  Now,  gentlemen,  use  your  own  knowledge  of 
readings  that  you  have  had.  You  have  a  right  to  do  that.  You 
have  a  right  to  say  whether  or  not,  according  to  your  own  ideas, 
the  word  of  God  is  obscene  as  handed  down  to  the  human  race;  but 
under  the  court's  direction  I  will  not  discuss  specifically  anything 
along  that  line.  But  I  will  say  in  this  connection,  that  if  yon 
bring  into  a  jury  box  illiterate  men,  who  have  no  common  under- 
standing of  the  English  language,  and  unfamiliar  with  the  book  of 
Genesis,  then  it  would  be  hard  to  speculate  what  they  might  say  was 
obscene.  I  make  this  discussion  along  the  lines  that  you  are  bound 
to  be  governed  by  your  own  ideas  as  to  the  meaning  and  the  intent 
and  the  effect  on  the  mind  of  a  person  when  the  article  is  read. 

Now,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  will  give  you  this  illustration, 
as  I  believe  it  will  better  explain  my  ideas  about  this  case.  Let  us 
take  for  instance  a  scientific  book,  a  medical  book;  that  kind  of 
a  book  may  properly  come  to  you  through  the  mails  and  you  may 
have  it  in  your  home  as  an  aid  to  your  family's  health.  It  may  have 


38  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

pictures  in  it  that  would  be  highly  obscene  if  taken  alone,  and  would 
call  forth  the  condemnation  of  this  jury  immediately.  But  when  you 
take  the  book  as  a  whole,  as  the  court  will  tell  you  you  should  take 
these  articles  in  connection  with  what  was  given  you,  as  a  whole, 
you  will  then  see  that  the  book's  object  and  its  effect  is  of  the 
highest  purpose  and  most  commendable.  If  I  should  take  that  book, 
cut  out  one  of  the  pages  showing  all  the  parts  of  the  human  anatomy, 
and  mail  it  to  you,  unexplained,  I  would  expect  to  be  convicted  of 
obscenity  and  serve  my  term  in  prison. 

But  if  I  mailed  that  book  to  you  containing  that  very  page, 
as  a  part  of  that  scientific  book,  that  was  necessary  to  understand 
and  to  help  humanity,  then  it  would  not,  gentlemen,  in  my  judgment, 
and  I  do  not  believe  in  the  judgment  of  any  man  on  this  jury,  be 
obscene. 

OBSCENITY  DEPENDS  UPON  PUEPOSE 

I  am  going  to  give  one  other  illustration.  I  refer  to  the 
ordinary  almanac.  It  might  be  that  in  the  ordinary  almanac,  on  the 
first  page,  a  nude  picture  of  a  man.  If  that  alone  were  sent  to  you 
through  the  mails,  it  would  be  a  violation  of  this  law.  But  when 
you  find  out  by  turning  through  the  book  that  the  picture  was  put 
there  for  a  laudable  object,  and  its  effect  is  to  show  to  you  what 
the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  mean,  and  how  to  find  the  location  of  the 
sign  by  turning  to  the  proper  date  in  the  book,  it  is  highly  desirable 
and  necessary,  and  is  not  obscene. 

I  say  these  are  illustrations  to  show  why  the  court  said  to 
the  District  Attorney,  "You  can  not  read  certain  excerpts  and  ex- 
tracts from  a  piece  of  literature  without  letting  the  jury  have  it  all 
to  see  what  effect  it  will  have  upon  their  minds." 

Now,  gentlemen,  let  us  think  about  the  evils  that  would  over- 
take us  in  this  busy  life  should  you  in  this  instance  say  this  book  and 
these  newspaper  articles  are  obscene.  In  the  first  place,  men,  we 
have  become  such  a  wonderful  country,  such  a  busy  people,  and  so 
enlightened  in  educational  matters,  that  we  rely  almost  entirely  upon 
the  newspapers  of  the  country  to  inform  us  what  is  going  on  in  the 
land.  I  want  to  tell  you  men,  and  I  believe  you  will  agree  with 
me  without  the  least  argument,  that  if  you  show  the  world  by  your 
verdict  that  the  priests  and  ministers  of  any  church,  who  are  in  the 
public  eye,  vriio  are  serving  the  public,  cannot  have  printed  about 


THE   STOBY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  39 

them  that  they  are  immoral,  and  their  immoral  acts  and  conduct 
brought  to  public  attention,  then  virtue  will  no  longer  be  protected 
in  this  country.  Public  opinion  is  the  only  safety  against  the  evils 
of  hypocrisy.  We  are  all  too  busy  to  circulate  and  create  public 
opinion  sufficient  to  stamp  out  the  evils  of  any  organization  by 
passing  it  from  mouth  to  mouth;  and  even  then,  it  might  be  doubted 
as  to  its  truth.  But  in  a  case  like  this,  where  the  great  question  is 
up  before  the  people  to  help  purify  the  church,  if  we  have  no  right— 
if  the  people  are  not  entitled  to  know  through  the  columns  of  the 
newspapers,  the  moral  standing,  the  moral  conduct  of  the  persons  in 
high  position,  then  I  say,  men,  we  as  a  people  are  absolutely  without 
remedy;  because  you  men  know  that  public  opinion  and  public  ex- 
posure is  the  only  punishment  for  the  immorality  of  our  public  men. 
Few  penalties  are  imposed  by  law  for  immorality. 

PEOPLE  HAVE  A  EIGHT  TO  KNOWLEDGE 

Every  man  has  a  right  in  a  general  sense  to  live  as  immoral 
as  he  likes,  as  long  as  he  does  not  make  a  public  spectacle  of  im- 
morality. But  don't  you  think  if  you  were  standing  at  the  head  of  a 
great  church,  or  if  you  were  running  for  some  great  office,  or  holding 
some  position  of  trust,  it  would  be  right  and  fair  that  the  people, 
under  whom  and  through  whom  you  received  this  honor,  should  be 
entitled  to  know  your  moral  standing  and  your  moral  acts  and  con- 
duct! Why,  I  say  to  the  distinguished  District  Attorney,  who  is 
now  in  the  public  eye,  who  is  serving  the  public,  that  he  would  not 
deny  this  proposition  and  say  that  the  depravity  of  a  public  man 
cannot  be  discussed  in  the  newspapers. 

Take  for  instance,  gentlemen,  members  of  our  supreme  court. 
Perhaps  there  is  not  a  man  on  this  jury  who  has  a  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  any  of  the  distinguished,  high-minded,  moral  gentle- 
men that  compose  that  court. 

Suppose  that  something  would  come  up  in  the  life  of  one  of 
these  men  that  would  unfit  him  for  service  from  a  moral  standpoint. 
How  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  men,  would  you  find  it  outf 
How  would  the  people  of  this  state  ever  knowf  How  could  they  learn 
the  facts  except  through  the  columns  of  the  newspapers  f  If  I  should 
tell  you  of  immoral  acts  and  conduct  detrimental  to  the  character 


40  THE   STOBY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

of  these  men^  you  would  immediately  become  skeptical  and  say  "it 
certainly  is  a  mistake,  for  I  have  seen  nothing  in  the  newspapers." 
So  therefore  it  is  highly  proper,  and  the  effect  of  it  is  proper, 
and  the  object  of  printing  such  matter  is  proper  to  go  before  the 
people  to  advise  them  of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  public  servants, 
whether  it  be  in  church  or  state,  in  order  that  evils  if  they  exist 
may  be  righted  by  the  people. 

And  you  might  go  on  with  this  line  of  argument,  but  it  is  no 
use,  for  you  men  understand  these  things,  and  His  Honor  will  not 
attempt  in  any  way  to  tell  you  that  such  articles  as  I  have  referred 
to  are  not  legitimate  subjects  of  discussion  in  newspapers  that  go 
through  our  mails. 

Now,  going  back  again  to  the  definition  and  interpretation  of 
this  statute,  as  given  you  by  the  District  Attorney,  I  want  to  ask 
you  wherein  lies  the  difference  between  the  class  of  articles  just 
mentioned  and  those  published  in  THE  MENACE! 

ROME  THE  EEAL  PROSECUTOR 

I  desire  now  to  call  your  attention  to  another  subject  just  for 
a  moment  before  I  forget  it.  And  that  is  this:  In  the  opening 
statement  of  the  able  District  Attorney  it  was  denied  that  the  Cath- 
olic church  or  the  order  of  the  Knights  of  Columbus  caused  this 
prosecution. 

Of  course  they  did  notl  How  could  Senator  Wilson  do  any- 
thing else  except  what  he  thought  was  his  duty?  But  I  want  to  tell 
you,  gentlemen,  that  the  moving  cause  behind  the  government  in  this 
case  that  influenced  His  Honor  the  District  Attorney,  in  presenting 
this  matter  to  the  grand  jury  has  been  shown  to  you.  And  when 
we  see  that  this  paper  has  something  like  one  and  one-half  million 
subscribers  and  that  only  three  people  were  put  on  this  stand  to  tell 
you  they  received  any  of  these  copies,  and  that  they  were  received  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  a  prosecution  against  this  paper,  and 
solicited  to  be  sent  them  for  this  purpose,  and  that  these  three  people 
are  all  either  Knights  of  Columbus  or  Catholics  working  together 
with  the  Knights  of  Columbus,  we  can  then  understand  the  prosecu- 
tion. Of  all  the  one  and  one-half  million  subscribers,  not  one  of 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  41 

them  seems  to  think  the  morals  of  the  people  are  being  outraged  by 
this  publication,  and  comes  here  to  prosecute. 

Now,  gentlemen  of  this  jury,  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  it 
happens  to  be  my  pleasure  to  live  in  the  shadow  of  the  building  that 
prints  this  paper.  I  am  raising  a  family  there  in  sight  of  this 
plant.  And  I  don't  think  the  morals  of  my  two  girls  or  my  boy 
is  going  to  be  lowered  by  anything  that  has  or  will  appear  in  this 
paper. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  say  that,  especially  when  these  men 
are  called  into  court,  facing  a  charge  of  feloniously  violating  the 
mailing  laws  I  am  glad,  men  of  this  district,  to  be  able  to  come 
here  in  their  defense,  not  only  as  a  lawyer  but  as  a  citizen,  to  say 
to  this  jury  that  these  defendants  are  not  criminals.  Not  one  of 
these  gentlemen  are  men  of  crime;  you  all  know  that.  You  know 
that  your  pocketbook  or  your  property  or  the  chastity  of  your  wile 
or  daughter  would  be  as  safe  in  their  hands  or  in  their  keeping  as  it 
would  be  in  your  own.  I  know  you  all  know  that,  for  none  of  you 
men  could  listen  to  the  reading  of  the  initial  article  in  the  first 
number  of  the  paper  and  then  look  these  men  in  the  face  and  say 
they  are  not  men  of  honor  and  honesty. 

As  a  rule,  gentlemen,  if  there  is  an"  institution  violating  the 
laws — for  instance  a  blind  tiger  or  a  house  of  prostitution — that  is 
degrading,  depraving  and  demoralizing  the  people,  usually  you  find 
some  one  in  that  locality,  of  righteousness  and  courage  to  come  for- 
ward to  prosecute,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  not  done  usually  satisfies 
the  ordinary  mind  that  no  law  is  being  violated.  If  such  things  are 
running  in  violation  of  law,  we  do  not  wait  in  our  country  for  men 
to  come  clear  across  the  state  to  suppress  them.  Our  good  citizens 
living  in  the  immediate  vicinity  would  be  the  first  to  act  and  see 
that  the  evil  was  removed  and  the  offender  punished. 

This  illustration  is  very  applicable  here,  for  I  want  to  say  to 
you  in  defense  of  the  good  citizenship  of  Aurora,  that  the  govern- 
ment must  be  mistaken  in  its  contention.  For  I  know  if  this  paper 
was  publishing  matter  that  was  demoralizing  the  country,  and  sowing 
lustful  thoughts  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  our  own  citizens  would 
be  here  clamoring  for  a  conviction  in  the  same  numbers  as  they  are 
here  praying  for  an  acquittal.  These  men  who  are  raising  their 


42  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

families  and  take  this  paper  in  their  homes  at  Aurora  would  be  the 
first  to  cry  out  for  relief  if  this  paper  was  polluting  the  mails  with 
obscenity.  i 

NOT  CRIMINALS,  BUT  BENEFACTOES 

Now,  gentlemen,  as  I  told  you,  I  know  these  defendants  well; 
they  are  myf  friends  and  my  neighbors  and  I  want  you  men  to  think 
of  the  laudable  purpose  tihese  men  have  in  life;  of  the  inspiring 
article  written  by  the  venerable,  gray-haired  man,  Walker,  who  has 
passed,  perhaps,  the  allotted  time  of  most  men  on  this  earth.  In- 
spiration came  to  that  man  when  he  wrote  that  article  and  that  same 
inspiration  has  been  guiding  the  destinies  of  this  paper  ever  since, 
and  when  you  think  of  men  fighting  a  cause  so  just;  when  you  think 
of  the  injustice  done  these  men  when  they*  have  been  brought  in 
here  branded  as  felons,  ,it  is  bound  to  make  you  blush  to  think  how 
badly  mistaken  the  District  Attorney  and  the  Grand  Jury  were  when 
they  returned  this  indictment,  although  they  may  have  been  sincere 
in  their  beliefs  at  the  time. 

Now,  men,  I  am  going  to  close  and  give  way  to  my  dis- 
tinguished associate  who  has  been  more  active  in  this  trial  than  I, 
and  all  I  ask  you  men  to  do,  all  these  defendants  desire  of  you,  is 
fair  play.  Follow  the  testimony,  follow  the  charge  of  the  court  in 
your  deliberations;  and  let  the  same  guiding  hand  and  guiding  spirit 
enter  into  your  thoughts  in  giving  interpretation  to  these  articles 
as  inspired  Theodore  Walker  when  he  wrote  the  platform  of  this 
paper  in  its  first  number.  And  when  you  do- that  we  know  what  the 
result  will  be,  for  it  will  be  your  happiest  moment  to  say  to  these 
men,  ' '  return  to  your  homes ;  you  have  done  no  wrong. ' '  Gentlemen, 
I  thank  you. 


HON.  J.  I.  SHEPPARD 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  J.  L  SHEPPARD 


Delivered  to  the  Jury  at  Joplin,  Mo.,  January  14,  1916,  In 

Defense  of  The  Menace  and  Its  Staff  Who  Were 

Charged  With  Sending  Obscene  Matter 

Through  the  United  States  Mails. 

If  the  court  please,  and  gentlemen  .of  the  jury:  I  feel  that  I 
ought  not  take  your  time  to  further  argue  this  case  on  the  part  of 
the  defense,  s'mce  my  associate  has  made  so  able  a  presentation  of 
it.  I  have  never  heard  a  clearer  or  a  better  discussion  of  the  issues 
in  a  law-suit  than  Mr.  McNatt,  has  just  given  you— free  from  any 
passion,  free  from  any  prejudice,  free  from  any  of  the  things  that 
sometimes  inspire  lawyers  to  say  things  they  ought  not  saj? — coolly, 
calmly,  deliberately,  as  a  sensible  man,  he  gave  you  his  views  of  the 
law  and  the  evidence  in  this  case. 

But  I  think  of  the  seriousness  of  the  matter,  and  for  fear 
there  might  be  something  overlooked  somewhere  along  the  line  that 
would  result  disastrously  to  our  clients,  I  crave  a  few  moments  of 
your  time. 

We  have  been  here  now  three  days.  I  knew  none  of  you  when 
1  came.  I  was  a  stranger  to  you.  I  am  a  stranger  yet,  in  the 
ordinary  acceptation  of  that  term,  but  yet  I  feel  as  though  I  had 
known  you  all  my  life.  I  have  looked  at  you  at  times  when  you 
were  not  conscious  of  it — studied  the  face  of  ever  man  on  this  jury; 
and  I  felt  certain  then,  as  I  feel  now,  that  no  harm  can  come  to 
these  defendants,  because  your  faces  bespeak  honesty  and  upright- 
ness of  purpose. 

We  have  gotten  through  with  this  trial  without  any  of  the 
wrangling  that  sometimes  takes  place  in  the  trial  of  ease*  in  court. 
I  was  fortunate  indeed  to  have  associated  with  me  such  a  man  as 
John  L.  McNatt.  He  has  brought  to  our  aid  in  this  trial  ku  pro- 


46  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

found  learning  and  experience.  His  deep  knowledge  of  the  law  has 
at  all  times  been  a  source  of  strength  and  comfort  to  me.  He  is  a 
noble  example  of  the  illustrious  sons  which  the  great  state  of  Mis- 
souri has  produced. 

We  are  fortunate,  to  have  on  the  other  side  of  the  case  such 
distinguished  gentlemen  as  the  District  Attorney  and  his  assistant, 
men  of  honor  and  integrity.  I  think  I  may  say  that  no  case  was 
ever  presented  in  a  better  way  than  has  the  District  Attorney  pre- 
sented this  one.  Francis  M.  Wilson  has  brought  out  in  this  case 
everything  that  could  possibly  have  been  presented  to  you.  He  has 
done  his  whole  duty  as  his  oath  of  office  requires  him  to  do,  and  if 
he  is  called,  as  it  seems  from  the  many  reports  that  have  come  to 
me  during  the  last  few  weeks  he  will  be,  to  the  high  office  of  Governor 
of  this  State,  I  am  sure  that  he  will  take  with  him  there  honesty, 
dignity,  ability,  and  the  noble  purpose  to  do  for  the  State  of  Missouri 
what  the  other  eminent  men  have  done  who  have  p&lbeded  him  in 
that  high  place.  T  know  that  he  wants  nothing  to  interfere  with  the 
course  of  justice  here.  I  have  known  of  him  a  long  while,  but  this 
is  the  first  time  I  was  ever  associated  in  any  way  with  him  in  the 
trial  of  a  cause.  But  I  say  to  you,  that  his  treatment  of  us  has 
been  fair  and  courteous  and  gentlemanly.  I  am  looking  forward  with 
pleasure  to  what  I  know  will  be,  after  I  have  concluded,  an  eloquent 
and  scholarly  argument  of  this  case;  and  you  gentlemen  are  to  be 
congratulated  that  you  will  have  an  opportunity  of  hearing  him. 

NO  CASE  TO  BEGIN  WITH 

And  yet,  gentlemen,  lawyers  cannot  make  cases.  There  was 
no  case  to  begin  with.  When  jurors  are  sworn  to  return  a  verdict 
according  to  the  law  and  the  evidence,  they  are  bound  by  their  con- 
science to  do  that  which  is  right,  and  although  lawyers  may  sway 

them,  although  lawyers  of  great  ability  may  present  arguments  that 
seem  hard  to  answer,  yet  the  average  juror  comes  back  again  to  his 
guide — his  conscience.  And  I  say  to  you,  without  fear  of  successful 
contradiction,  that  notwithstanding  verdicts  of  juries  are  sometimes 
criticised,  yet  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases— ninety-nine  out  of  a 
hundred — the  verdicts  of  juries  are  right;  and  that  is  why  the  people 
insist  upon  retaining  the  jury  system.  Twelve  men  are  called  from 
every  walk  of  life  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  conduct  and  actions 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE  TKIAL  47 

of  their  fellow  citizens.  And  when  they  have  determined,  the  people 
are  satisfied  that  if  they  haven't  done  right,  they  have  at  least  tried 
to  do  so. 

You  twelve  men  occupy  a  peculiar  position  today.  As  soon  as 
the  arguments  are  finished  and  the  court  has  charged  you  as  to  the 
law,  you  go  to  your  jury  room  to  deliberate  upon  your  verdict. 
When  the  door  of  the  jury  room  closes  behind  you,  and  you  twelve 
are  left  alone,  you  will  have  more  power  than  any  president,  any 
emperor,  any  prince,  or  any  potentate  in  all  the  world.  You  have  in 
your  keeping  the  liberty  of  four  men — your  fellow  citizens.  It  is 
for  you  to  say  whether  these  men  shall  go  back  to  Aurora,  cleared  of 
the  stain  that  this  charge  has  brought  against  them,  or  whether  they 
shall  proceed  from  here  to  Lieavenworth  as  felons,  sentenced,  to  pay 
a  fine  of  five  thousand  dollars  and  to  serve  five  years  in  the  peniten- 
tiary, on  each  count  that  you  convict  upon.  So  I  say  that  you  have 
a  wonderful  power  in  your  hands  today.  The  probabilities  are  that 
none  of  you  will  ever  again  be  given  such  power,  for  men  are  seldom 
called  to  render  jury  service;  some  never  are  called.  And  so  I 
speak  to  you  of  the  seriousness  of  the  great  responsibility  that  rests 
upon  you,  and  I  ask  you  to  use  your  great  power  as  becomes  noble 
men. 

In  this  case,  it  is  urged  that  we  must  be  confined  strictly  to 
the  matter  set  out  in  the  indictment.  You  noticed  what  that  matter 
was.  Now,  I  may  have  misunderstood  the  court's  rulings  a  moment 
ago,  but  I  think  'ho  will  instruct  you  at  the  conclusion  of  this  case 
that  you  have  a  right,  when  you  deliberate  upon  the  question  of 
whether  this  matter  is  obscene,  to  call  to  your  consideration,  your 
knowledge  of  the  literature  of  the  world,  the  Bible,  Shakespeare  and 
other  standard  works,  for  the  purpose  of  determining  the  effect  that 
that  literature  has  had  upon  the  world,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
determining  what  effect  this  particular  literature  will  have  upon  the 
world.  I  say,  I  am  convinced  the  court  will  give  you  that  instruction. 
It  has  been  requested. 

GABBLED  PASSAGES 

You  have  read  in  Holy  Writ — and  didn't  your  fathers  and 
mothers  before  you,  as  mine  did— read  things  from  which,  if  you 
take  an  excerpt  such  as  is  sought  to  be  taken  in  this  case,  from  a 


48  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

page  or  a  chapter  or  a  paragraph  and  consider  it,  standing  alone, 
would  not  sound  well  to  ears  polite. 

MB.  WILSON:  Just  a  moment.  Now,  if  the  court  please,  I 
very  much  regret  to  interrupt  my  friend,  but  under  the  rulings  of 
this  court,  I  do  not  understand  that  he  is  permitted  to  argue  to  the 
jury  that  which  was  expressly  excluded  by  the  court.  He  cannot 
argue  as  to  excerpts  from  other  books. 

ME.  SHEPPARD:  If  your  honor  please,  in  the  cases  that  have 
been  decided,  Your  Honor  knows  that  attorneys  have  been  allowed 
to  read  and  to  quote  from  books  of  standard  literature,  not  for  the 
purpose  of  comparison^  but,  as  was  said  by  Judge  Thayer  in  the 
case  I  handed  to  Your  Honor — in  the  Clark  case,  that  it  could  be 
done  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  jury  in  determining  what 
effect  such  literature  had  had  upon  the  people,  and  so  it  could  be 
taken  into  consideration  for  the  purpose  of  determining  what  effect 
the  particular  literature  alleged  in  the  indictment  to  be  obscene, 
might  have  upon  the  people;  and  I  insist,  if  Your  Honor  please, 
that  it  is  the  right  of  the  defense  to  continue  the  argument  along 
the  line  indicated  in  the  decisions  I  have  referred  to. 

THE  COURT:  The  court  will  instruct  the  jury  with  respect  to 
its  view  of  the  matter,  in  consideration  of  counsel's  agreement  to 
hold  himself  within  the  reasonable  observations  of  the  rules  requiring 
the  introduction  of  evidence. 

MR.  SHEPPARD:  I  shall  do  so,  if  Your  Honor  please. 

Gentlemen,  I  need  but  call  your  attention  to  two  of  the  great 
books  of  the  world  and  the  literature  contained  in  them.  I  will 
speak  only  of  the  Holy  Bible  and  Shakespeare.  These  two  books 
are  in  every  man's  library.  If  the  rule  were  enforced  that  is  sought 
to  be  enforced  by  the  government  here,  neither  the  Holy  Bible  nor 
Shakespeare  would  be  allowed  passage  through  the  mails  of  the 
country.  Why,  gentlemen,  the  language  charged  as  obscene  in  the 
indictment  in  this  case,  compared  with  some  passages  in  the  Bible 
and  some  in  Shakespeare  are  the  very  essence  of  all  that  is  ehaste 
and  seemly.  The  story  of  Onan,  the  son  of  Judah;  the  story  of  the 
rape  of  Tamer  by  Amnon  and  his  death  at  the  hands  of  Tamer's 
brother,  Absolom;  the  story  of  King  David  and  Uriah's  wife;  many 
parts  of  the  play  of  Eomeo  and  Juliet,  and  other  of  the  great  plays 
of  Shakespeare  might  easily  be  tortured  by  the  prude  or  the  "unco- 
guid"  into  seeming  obscenity — if,  wrenched  from  their  context,  they 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  MENACE  TRIAL  49 

were  coldly  considered  alone.  But  the  rule,  gentlemen,  as  the  court 
will  tell  you,  by  which  you  are  to  consider  whether  or  not  the 
language  charged  in  the  indictment  is  obscene  is  this:  does  the 
alleged  obscene  matter  taken  in  connection  with  its  context  have 
a  tendency  to  debase  and  corrupt  the  minds  of  those  into  whose 
hands  it  may  come. 

THE  MENACE  CONSISTENT 

Now,  gentlemen,  in  the  opening  statement  I  told  you  that  we 
would  read  the  first  article  in  the  first  issue  of  THE  MENACE  to 
show  you  the  object  and  purpose  these  gentlemen  had  in  establishing 
tjhe  paper.  I  kept  that  pledge,  and  I  read  you  that  article  today, 
and  you  remember  it  now.  In  that  article,  as  you  remember,  Eev. 
Walker  said: 

' '  THE  MENACE  was  not  begun  in  a  captious  spirit,  far  from 
it,  but  with  a  profound  conviction  that  a  very  grave  and  portentous 
menace  confronts  the  American  people,  that  needs  to  be  given  pub- 
licity. 

' '  THE  MENACE  has  no  fight  with  the  Boman  religion  for  those 
who  like  it,  as  it  relates  to  salvation  and  the  future  life. 

"The  threatening  danger  to  American  institutions,  a  free 
church,  a  free  press,  a  free  school,  tihe  right  of  private  judgment 
in  the  matter  of  conscience— these  the  Roman  church  subordinate  to 
the  authority  of  its  hierarchy. 

"The  private,  humble  communicant  in  the  Catholic  church  has 
no  choice  what  he  is  to  believe — it  is  for  him  to  obey  the  voice  of 
the  church. 

"THE  MENACE  takes  issue  with  this  voice,  and  not  with  the 
communicant;  with  the  authorities  that  direct,  and  not  the  man  or 
woman  who  feels  compelled  to  obey. 

"THE  MENACE,  therefore  enters  a  legitimate  field  of  criticism 
open  to  all  whether  he  be  Catholic,  Protestant,  Greek  or  Jew,  Mo- 
hammedan or  Freethinker. 

"If  the  Catholic  church  is  a  menace  to  American  liberty  and 
free  institutions,  the  people  ought  to  know  it,  especially  the  Catholic 
members. 

"The  only  freedom  that  is  worth  having  at  all  is  that  which 


50  THE   STORY    OF   THE    MENACE   TRIAL 

the  Christ  announced  when  he  said,  'and  the  truth  shall  make  you 
free.' 

"It  is  not  a  question  of  who  utters  condemnation  against 
priestcraft  and  ecclesiastical  interference  in  things  belonging  ex- 
clusively to  the  state;  but,  is  the  charge  truef 

"To  assail  the  editor  of  THE  MENA.CE  or  its  publishers  will 
avail  nothing.  The  hierarchy  must  meet  the  impending  crisis  which 
THE,  MENACE  believes  is  at  hand  or  be  driven  from  the  field  as  in 
France,  Germany,  Spain  and  every  great  nation  of  modern  times." 

This  was  the  chart  which  guided  these  defendants  at  the 
time  they  launched  THE  MENACE,  and  the  same  high  and  noble  pur- 
poses have  ever  since  inspired  them. 

ROME  THE  EEAL  PEOSECUTOE 

And  who  is  the  real  prosecutor  in  this  case?  Ostensibly  it  is 
the  United  States  government,  "but  in  reality  it  is  the  Roman  Catholic 
Hierarchy. 

The  only  persons  who  testify  to  receiving  the  alleged  objec- 
tionable" copies  of  THE  MENACE  through  the  mails  are  Landry  Har- 
wood,  a  lawyer  of  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  and  head  of  the  Knights 
of  Columbus  in  Missouri,  and  E.  V.  Schneider hahn,  a  lawyer  and 
prominent  Knight  of  Columbus  of  St.  Louia,  Missouri.  The  only 
person  who  testifies  to  receiving  a  copy  of  the  Crowley  book  through 
the  mails  is  Miss  Wilson,  a  Eoman  Catholic  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri. 
Miss  Wilson  it  seems  is  also  stenographer  for  Paul  Bakewell,  an- 
other St.  Louis  lawyer  and  a  high  light  in  the  Eoman  political  ma- 
chine. It  is  this  same  Bakewell  who  claims  credit  for  having  pro- 
cured the  indictment  in  this  case. 

According  to  Harwood,  these  Eoman  Catholic  lawyers  took 
THE  MENACE  and  carefully  read  it  to  find  if  possible  some  means 
of  excluding  it  from  the  mails,  or  of  having  its  editors  indicted.  We 
find  Schneiderhahn,  Bakewell  and  another  Boman  Catholic  lawyer  of 
St.  Louis,  Judge  O'Neil  Eyan,  meeting  at  Bakewell 's  office  trying  to 
devise  means  for  ending  the  career  of  THE  MENACE  and  imprisoning 
its  editors. 

And  just  to  think,  gentlemen,  of  the  infinite  pains  these 
Eoman  Catholic  politicians  took  in  trying  to  protect  heretics  from 


51 

being  polluted  and  contaminated  by  reading  THE  MENACE  and 
Crowley's  book. 

Ah,  gentlemen,  their  solicitude  was  not  so  much  as  you  may 
well  believe  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the  people  as  it  was  to  prevent 
just  criticism  of  those  in  authority  in  the  Eoman  Catholic  church. 

The  postmaster  at  Aurora  has  testified  before  you  that  mil- 
lions and  millions  of  copies  of  THE  MENACE  have  gone  through  the 
mails  in  the  four  years  of  its  existence,  and  yet  these  distinguished 
Eoman  Catholic  lawyers — members  of  the  papal  machine — together 
with  the  government  inspectors  and  detectives  were  able  to  find  only 
six  articles,  which  they  thought  worthy  of  presenting  to  a  grand 
jury.  I  say  to  you  that  they  strained  at  something  to  get  into  court. 
Haven 't  they  done  so  indeed  gentlemen? 

Remember,  I  am  not  blaming  the  District  Attorney.  He  has 
done  his  duty.  When  a  lawyer  takes  official  position,  he  must  obey 
the  oath  of  office  he  takes.  He  must  follow  instructions  from  su- 
periors. The  testimony  here  is  that  this  man  Bakewell  got  two  of 
the  books;  his  stenographer  delivered  them  to  him;  she  ordered  them 
at  his  direction  and  paid  for  them  with  his  money.  He  kept  one 
book  and  he  had  her  send  the  other  on  to  the  Postmaster-General, 
stating,  as  the  testimony  shows,  to  the  Postmaster-General  in  a 
letter  that  he  wrote  him  that  he  was  sending  a  copy  of  this  book, 
properly  initialed  so  he  could  identify  it — that  he  was  also  sending 
him  a  copy  of  THE  MENACED  stating  that  if  he  could  put  THE 
MENACE  out  of  the  mails  to  pass  it  up  to  the  Attorney-General  to 
have  them  prosecuted.  That  is  the  testimony  here.  Those  books, 
or  that  book  that  Paul  Bakewell  got  in  his  hands  appears  here.  It 
appears  here,  and  upon  it  the  indictment  in  the  seventh  count  is 
based.  Upon  the  papers -that  Landry  Harwood  received  and  the 
papers  that  Schneiderhahn  received,  the  other  six  counts  in  the  in- 
dictment are  based.  And  then  you  tell  me  that  we  haven't  shown 
the  hand  of  Romef  How  could  it  be  more  plainly  shown!  Tes, 
gentlemen,  Borne  is  the  real  prosecutor  of  these  defendants. 

THE  CROWLEY  BOOK 

These  Roman  Catholic  gentlemen  who  are  responsible  for  this 
prosecution  made  a  great  and  serious  mistake.  I  believe  they  must 
realize  it  now.  What  they  should  want  to  do,  it  seems  to  me,  would 
be  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  the  things  charged  in  TH*  MKNAOK 


52  THE   STOEY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

and  in  Crowley  's  book  are  true.  Why,  gentlemen,  only  a  small  por- 
tion of  the  Crowley  book  has  been  admitted  in  evidence  but  you 
remember  that  therein  it  is  charged  among  other  things,  that  by 
reason  of  the  foul,  filthy  and  vile  suggestions  that  are  poured  into 
the  ears  of  innocent  women  and  girls  in  the  confessional  by  Catholic 
priests,  thousands  of  Catholic  women  and  girls  finally  take  to  the 
street  and  wind  up  in  the  jails  or  in  the  grave  as  debauched  and 
ruined  women.  It  is  charged  that  a  majority  of  all  the  prostitutes 
in  the  world  are  recruited  from  Catholic  womanhood  and  girlhood  by 
reason  of  the  foul  suggestions  and  filthy  questions  which  are  asked 
in  the  confessional  by  Catholic  priests.  It  is  also  charged  that  vast 
numbers  of  Protestant  girls  who  attend  convent  schools  are  de- 
bauched and  ruined  by  Catholic  priests  and  that  these  priests  boast 
of  the  ease  witih  which  they  can  ruin  Protestant  girls. 

If  these  things  are  true,  then  instead  of  trying  to  suppress 
their  publication  by  prosecution,  these  men  who  are  back  of  the 
prosecution  in  this  case  and  all  others  who  belong  to  the  same  or- 
ganization should  want  the  facts  known  and  then  should  make  it 
impossible,  if  they  find  them  to  be  true,  for  such  conditions  longer 
to  exist. 

INSINCEEITY  OF  PERSECUTORS 

It  just  happens  that  my  brother,  the  District  Attorney,  and 
I  both  belong  to  the  Methodist  church  and  the  Masonic  Fraternity. 
Suppose  that  such  charges  as  are  made  in  the  Crowley  book  and  in 
THE  MENACE  against  the  Roman  Catholic  priests  and  the  Catholic 
politicians  were  made  by  someone  in  a  newspaper  or  a  book  against 
the  Methodist  church  or  the  Masonic  Fraternity.  What  would  Mr. 
Francis  Wilson  do  and  what  would  I  dot  What  would  be  his  'duty 
as  an  American  citizen?  And  what  would  be  my  duty  as  an  Amer- 
ican citizen  under  such  circumstances?  Would  we  carefully  keep  files 
of  the  paper  and  in  a  round-about  way  secure  copies  of  the  book  in 
which  such  charges  were  made?  Would  we  wait  for  years  to  find 
some  small  excerpt  in  such  papers  or  books  upon  which  we  might 
possibly  base  a  prosecution  against  the  author  and  publisher?  As 
for  myself,  I  would  not  do  such  a  thing  and  I  am  sure  Mr.  Wilson 
would  feel  as  I  do  about  it.  I  am  sure  that  we  would  go  at  once  to 
the  leaders  of  the  Methodist  church  organization  and  to  the  leaders 
of  the  Masonic  Fraternity  and  give  them  our  information  and  de- 
mand an  investigation  of  the  charges.  If  they  were  found  to  be 


THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  53 

true,  means  would  be  taken  to  correct  them  and  instead  of  prose- 
cuting those  who  had  given  the  information,  I  am  sure  that  good 
men  would  approve  their  conduct  and  honor  them  for  making  the 
exposure.  There  would  have  been  no  appeal  by  us  to  the  Post- 
master-General or  to  the  Department  of  Justice,  unless  we  found 
first  that  the  charges  were  false.  So  I  say  to  these  men  (turning 
and*  directing  his  remarks  to  Landry  Harwood  and  Paul  Bakewell 
who  sat  within  the  rail)  correct  these  conditions.  Clean  house! 
Clean  house!  and  then  the  people  can't  talk  about  you.  You  ought 
not  bring  prosecution  against  these  men.  If  these  things  are  true, 
nobody,  as  Rev.  Walker  has  well  said,  ought  to  want  to  know  it 
more  than  you  Roman  Catholics  yourselves.  If  it  is  true,  as  Jere- 
miah J.  Crowley  says,  that  the  Roman  Catholic  church  is  a  great 
grafting  machine,  why  in  the  name  of  God  don't  the  Roman  Catholic 
people  reform  itf 

LET  THE  TRUTH  BE  KNOWN 

I  say  the  proper  thing  to  do  is  to  correct  these  conditions.  What 
did  Mr.  Walker  say?  He  said  that  if  these  things  are  true,  the 
people  should  know  them.  That  is  what  THE  MENACK  has  always 
contended.  That  is  what  Jeremiah  J.  Crowley  contends.  This  great 
man  is  making  a  heroic  fight  for  the  people  of  this  counrty  and  the 
people  love  him  for  it.  I  remember  some  things  that  he  said  to  me 
when  I  first  met  him  that  better  describes  his  character  than  any- 
thing I  can  tell  you.  When  I  asked  him  about  his  work,  he  said, 
"Mr.  Sheppard,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  have  abandoned  Popery  for 
Christianity;  I  have  exchanged  the  Mass  book  for  the  Bible;  I  have 
quit  the  standard  of  the  Pope  and  have  enrolled  myself  under  the 
banner  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  but  one  ambition  in  life,  and  that  is 
the  ambition  that  nerved  Savonarola  to  die  and  made  Martin  Luther 
live." 

Jeremiah  J.  Crowley,  the  man  who  was  for  twenty-one  years 
a  priest,  and  the  man  who  wrote  this  book,  portions  of  which  have 
been  introduced  here,  is  a  public  benefactor.  The  time  is  right  here 
when  the  people  of  America  are  going  to  know  what  is  in  this  book, 
not  portions  of  it  but  all  of  it.  I  was  born  in  the  South  and  I  can 
remember  a  great  cause  that  years  ago  agitated  the  people  of  this 
nation.  My  people,  and  all  the  people  in  our  part  of  the  country, 
stood  for  the  decisions  of  the  courts  of  law  that  said  that  a  human 


54  THE   STORY   OF   THE    MENACE   TRIAL 

being,  fleeing  for  liberty,  could  be  captured  and  taken  back  and 
delivered  over  to  another  human  being,  and  the  man  who  did  not 
capture  him  and  deliver  him  up  was  also  held  a  criminal.  I  re- 
member that  during  that  agitation,  as  you  men  well  remember, 
William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  dragged  by  the  neck  with  a  rope  through 
the  streets  of  Boston,  because  he  advocated  in  his  newspaper  the 
abolition  of  slavery.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Law  and  all  the  decisions 
based  upon  it  were  wiped  out  by  the  will  of  the  people  as  expressed 
in  armed  conflict.  If  the  time  comes  when  men,  legitimately  engaged 
in  publishing  newspapers  and  in  writing  books,  cannot  publish  them 
for  fear  of  prosecution  and  imprisonment,  and  cannot  tell  the  truth 
about  any  organization,  then  again  the  people  will  re-write  the  laws; 
then  the  people  will  assert  themselves,  and  if  necessary  wipe  out  such 
infamous  laws  with  their  blood.  And  I  want  to  serve  notice  now 
on  those  people  who,  in  violation  of  the  spirit  of  THE  MENACE  article 
in  which  it  was  said,  *~'you  cannot  rule  by  force,  you  cannot  refute 
criticism  by  violence," — I  want  to  tell  them  that  there  is  a  limit 
to  the  endurance  of  the  American  people.  No  organization  that  is 
dealing  fairly  and  squarely,  and  is  upright  and  just,  need  fear 
criticism.  You  know  that  the  one  thing  evil  hates  is  publicity.  The 
newspaper  is  the  greatest  means  of  renovating  the  morals  of  the  na- 
tion. These  defendants  have  spoken  plainly  but  they  have  spolcen  the 
truth. 

BEADING  SHOULD  BE  ENCOURAGED 

Everyone  recognizes  that  advancement  will  be  best  promoted 
by  increasing  the  army  of  those  who  read. 

Ignorance  and  superstition  vanish  before  enlightenment. 

The  printed  book  and  the  newspaper  are  the  instruments  that 
will  bring  about  this  transformation. 

What  humanity  requires  is  the  light.    It  gets  light  by  reading. 

Thus  we  see  the  importance  of  the  free  press  everywhere  for 
everybody. 

When  the  people  read,  then  the  people  will  know,  and  such 
practices  as  are  described  in  THE  MENACE  and  in  Crowley's  book,  it 
will  no  longer  be  possible  for  any  organization  to  countenance. 

Fifteen  million  Bibles  of  the  King  James  Version  are  printed 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TRIAL  55 

and  distributed  every  year  among  the  people  of  the  earth.  .These 
are.  bringing  light  and  Christianity  to  the  masses  of  the  people. 

If  those  who  instigated  this  prosecution  could  have  their  way, 
every  Bible  in  the  world  would  be  burned  and  the  people  kept  in 
ignorance. 

You  remember,  do  you  not,  the  story  of  how  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin 'a  father  '•  family  did  in  England  in  order  to  preserve  their  Bible. 
You  remember  that  the  Roman  Catholic  church  decreed,  that  all 
Bibles,  other  than  the  Catholic  Bible,  should  be  destroyed  and  even 
these  were  not  allowed  to  be  generally  read.  Franklin  had  a  Bible, 
and  in  order  to  keep  it  from  being  destroyed,  they  secreted  it  in  a 
jointed  stool.  That  is,  the  Bible  was  placed  open  under  the  cover 
of  the  stool,  and  when  the  old  gentleman  desired  to  read  to  the 
family,  he  would  turn  the  cover  of  the  stool  back  and  read  from  the 
Bible,  while  some  member  of  the  family  stood  at  the  door  to  watch 
and  see  if  an  officer  was  coming  and  warn  the  family  so  they  could 
cover  the  Bible  up  again. 

Those  who  are  instigating  this  prosecution,  would  have  us  re- 
turn to  those  days,  and  return  to  them  we  will,  if  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Hierarchy)  can  secure  the  conviction  and  punishment  of  these 
defendants  and  others  like  them. 

If  it  comes  to  pass  that  these  iniquities,  which  THE  MENACE 
in  its  columns  uncovers,  and  the  gross  abuses  and  abominations, 
which  Father  Crowley  speaks  of  in  his  book,  cannot  be  told  to  the 
people  in  print,  without  fear  of  prosecution  or  imprisonment,  the 
rage  of  the  people  will  burst  out  in  a  tornado,  and  there  will  be 
no  peace  until  these  emissaries  of  a  foreign  power  are  compelled  to 
conform  themselves  and  their  practices  to  law  and  order. 

Prosecutions  like  this  are  but  the  beginning  of  the  storm  that 
will  bring  down  about  their  ears^the  wrath  of  an  outraged  people. 

SUPPRESSION  NO  REMEDY 

Do  you  believe  that  the  charge  made  here  that  drunken,  lech- 
erous priests  seduce  Protestant  girls  that  are  confided  to  the  Sisters 
and  taken  into  these  schools— do  you  believe  that  such  a  charge  as 
this  could  last  for  an  hour  against  Methodist,  Baptist  or  Christian 
ministers  without  an  investigation  f  Would  Protestants  rush  out  and 
try  to  suppress  the  paper?  Wouldn't  they  want  to  save  th«  girla — 


56  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

the  morals  of  these  young  girls?  Wouldn't  they  want  to  do  that? 
Wouldn't  they  be  the  very  ones  that  would  come  down  here  and  say 
to  these  defendants,  ' '  Show  us  the  proof  of  these  things ' '  ?  Wouldn  't 
they  go  to  Jeremiah  J.  Crowley  and  say,  "Show  us  the  truth  of 
these  things?  If  you  have  proof,  we  want  it.  We  are  Christian 
people,  and  we  want  these  abuses  corrected,  and  the  guilty  punished. ' ' 
That  is  the  way  this  matter  should  be  determined. 

Is  it  possible  that  such  things  as  THE  MENACE  charges,  and 
such  things  as  Jeremiah  J.  Crowley  describes  in  his  book,  exist  right 
in  our  vicinity,  and  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and  no  one  dare 
publish  the  fact,  for  fear  of  imprisonment  and  fine? 

Is  it  true  that  threats  of  death  shall  deter  honest,  brave  men 
from  calling  the  attention  of  their  fellow-citizens  to  this  danger, 
which  lurks  in  our  very  midst?  If  so,  then  God  give  us  a  race 
of  brave  men,  men  like  these  defendants,  who  are  not  afraid  of  the 
disgrace  and  torture  of  prison,  men  who  are  not  afraid  to  face  death 
for  a  good  cause. 

If  it  is  true,  as  Father  Crowley  charges  in  his  book,  laid  be- 
fore you  here,  that  the  majority  of  all  prostitutes  come  from  the 
Catholic  girls  and  women  who  have  been  polluted  by  the  priestly 
confessors,  is  it  not  time  that  the  world  knows  these  things,  so  that 
people  can  be  shamed  out  of  going  to  confessional?  If  it  is  true, 
as  Father  Crowley  charges  in  his  book,  laid  before  you  here,  that 
nuns  go  about  soliciting  Protestant  girls  as  students  in  the  nunneries 
and  the  convent  schools,  and  that  then  they  are  debauched  and  cor- 
rupted by  priests  who  are  in  charge  of  these  nunneries  and  schools; 
and  if  it  is  true  that  these  priests  boast  of  the  ease  in  which  they 
can  seduce  Protestant  girls  in  these  schools,  ought  not  the  world 
know  it?  Ought  not  the  people  have  some  knowledge  of  this  so 
they  can  take  some  means  to  stop^  such  vile  streams  of  corruption? 
If  these  charges  are  not  true,  what  is  the  remedy  which  the  Eoman 
Catholic  church  should  seek?  Surely  it  is  not  having  the  government 
prosecute  for  sending  obscene  matter  through  the  mails;  surely  it 
is  not  in  mobbing  and  killing  speakers  and  writers  as  they  did  mur- 
der Rev.  William  Black  at  Marshall,  Texas.  This  kind  of  conduct 
does  not  come  well  from  an  organization  that  claims  to  be  divinely 
ordained  of  God.  It  is  hardly  a  seemly  thing  to  see  Christian  gentle- 
men, followers  of  Christ,  threatening,  boycotting,  beating  and  mur- 


fHE  STORY  OF  THE  MENACE  TRIAL  6? 

I 

dering  men  because  these  men  make  charges  against  those  in  control 
of  Christ's  church. 

THE  BIGHT  WAY 

There  is  a  way  to  remedy  these  things  in  a  lawful  and  proper 
manner,  and  everyone  will  say,  Amen,  to  such  action.  These  charges 
are  too  serious  to  be  met  and  stifled  by  mob  violence  or  prosecution. 
It  requires  some  other  means  to  stop  this  cloud  of  criticism. 

These  defendants  are  not  the  foul,  filthy  men  you  see  some- 
times in  court.  I  think  probably  you  were  here  at  the  time  when 
one  poor,  unfortunate  man  came  into  court  and  pleaded  guilty  to 
sending  obscene  matter  through  the  mails  in  a  letter  to  a  woman. 
We  are  tried  under  the  same  statute,  and  it  seems  that  the  District 
Attorney  wants  to  apply  the  same  rule  to  these  gentlemen  that  was 
applied  to  him. 

But  you  men  won't  give  a  verdict  of  that  kind.  I  am  con- 
fident of  it.  You  are  here  representing  not  only  the  people  of  this 
district;  you  represent  all  the  people  of  the  nation,  all  the  people  of 
America.  By  your  verdict  you  can  say  to  these  people  who  inspired 
this  prosecution,  "Go  back  home  and  read  the  files  of  THE  MENACE 
you  have  got,  and  tear  out  of  them  all  things  that  are  charged 
against  you,  paste  them  all  in  a  book,  get  them  all  together,  and 
then  go  and  round  up  these  men.  Find  the  men  who  are  doing  the 
foul  things  that  Crowley  tells  of  in  his  book  and  that  THE  MENACE 
tells  of  and  bring  them  to  justice,  or  prove  that  the  charges  are  not 
true."  A  charge  of  that  kind,  made  that  women  are  ruined  by  the 
thousands,  both  Catholic  and  Protestant  women!  And  yet  the  only 
answer  to  it  is  to  try  to  send  Marvin  Brown,  and  Bruce  M.  Phelps 
and  Wilbur  Phelps  and  Reverend  Walker  to  prison.  Is  that  all  the 
answer  there  is  to  it  T  No,  no.  Twelve  men  of  Missouri  will  give 
them  a  different  answer.  You  will  say  to  them:  "Gentlemen,  if 
you  can't  stand  criticism,  get  out  of  business."  That  is  what  you 
will  say.  "Clean  up!  Clean  house!  and  then  nobody  can  criticise 
you."  That  is  what  the  verdict  of  this  jury  will  be. 

The  great  educational  factor  of  the  world  is  the  public  press 
of  the  country  and  it  must  be  kept  free.  According  to  the  testimony, 
1,500,000  copies  of  this  paper  go  through  the  mails  each  week  and 
yet  no  one  believes  that  it  contains  obscene  or  indecent  matter 
except  a  few  Roman  Catholics.  These  Roman  Catholics  have  been 
watching  its  columns  for  years  to  find  something  upon  which  they 


58  THE   STORY   OF   THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

could  get  the  paper  denied  the  privilege  of  the  mails  or  get  its 
editors  imprisoned  in  the  penitentiary.  Gentlemen,  fair  play  would 
dictate  that  you  should  not  tolerate  any  such  conduct  as  that.  Why 
should  the  Boman  Catholics  cry  out  that  these  defendants  are  trying 
to  stir  up  religious  prejudice?  Do  you  call  such  things  as  Father 
Crowley  refers  to  in  his  book  religion?  If  so,  then  God  deliver  us 
from  such  religion. 

CONTINUATION  OF  THE  INQUISITION 

You  will  keep  in  mind,  gentlemen,  the  fact  that  most  of  the 
articles,  from  which  little  excerpts  have  been  taken  upon  which  to 
indict  the  defendants,  were  first  published  in  other  newspapers  in 
full.  One  of  the  articles  was  published  in  The  Rocky  Mountain  News 
of  Denver,  Colorado.  Another  in  the  Portland,  Oregon,  Daily  News. 
I  haven't  heard  of  any  Knight  of  Columbus  tearing  his  hair  because 
these  papers  published  the  same  foul  charges  against  priests.  These 
defendants  re-published  the  articles  in  order  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  people  of  America  to  these  evils  and  to  show  that  our  free  in- 
stitutions are  in  danger.  If  the  defendants  are  to  be  punished  for 
this  then,  soon  we  shall  be  back  to  the  time  of  the 'Inquisition  when, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Eoman  Catholic  Hierarchy,  men's  fingers 
and  arms  were  pulled  off  and  other  tortures  inflicted  upon  them 
because  they  did  not  pray  as  the  Koman  Catholic  church  said  they 
should  pray.  But  they  cannot  do  that  kind  of  a  thing  in  this  coun- 
try. This  nation  was  founded  upon  the  right  of  every  man  to  wor- 
ship according  to  the  dictates  of  hi*  own  conscience.  In  our  govern- 
ment Church  and  State  are  to  be  forever  separated.  The  Eoman 
Catholic  Hierarchy  shall  not  control  this  government,  shall  not  sub- 
ject a  free  press  and  the  right  of  every  man  and  woman  to  worship 
God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  conscience  to  the  censor- 
ship of  Eoman  Catiholie  priests.  Never  will  any  priest  be  able  to 
tell  the  people  of  this  nation  how  they  shall  pray,  or  that  they  shall 
pray  at  all,  if  they  do  not  want  to.  That  time,  thank  God,  will 
never  come.  The  people  of  the  United  States  will  not  stand  for  it. 
They  may  mob  or  occasionally  kill  a  man,  but  they  cannot  suppress 
free, speech  and  free  press;  and  they  cannot  answer  argument  with 
force.  The  court  will  instruct  you  gentlemen  that  the  test  of  ob- 
scenity is  whether  the  matter  alleged  to  be  obscene  tends  to  corrupt 


THE   STORY    OF  THE   MENACE   TKIAL  59 

the  morals  or  deprave  the  minds  of  those  into  whose  hands  it  may 
come  that  are  susceptible  to  such  influence. 

UPLIFTING  BATHER  THAN  DEBASING 

As  my  associate  has  well  said,  the  charges  that  are  made  in 
THE  MENACE  and  in  this  book  have  not  the  tendency  to  deprave  but 
on  the  contrary,  they  tend  to  uplift  mankind — to  make  men  and 
women  better — to  make  them  hate  and  despise  lechery  and  pollution. 
It  tends  to  make  better  citizens.  It  tends  to  make  them  love  their 
country  better — it  tends  to  make  the  people  patriotic. 

If  they  can  shut  this  book  of  Crowley's  out  of  the  mails,  they 
can  also  shut  out  that  old  book  (putting  his  hand  upon  the  Bible 
which  lay  upon  the  table),  which  has  been  the  comfort  of  the  people 
of  all  the  world  since  it  was  written.  If  they  can  shut  the  one  out 
of  the  mails,  they  can  shut  the  other  out.  I  did  want  to  read  to  you 
some  passages  from  this  book,  but  I  am  limited  in  my  time  for 
argument  and  so  will  refrain  from  doing  so.  I  sent  my  daughter, 
Mary,  a  copy  of  the  Bible  last  Christmas  when  she  was  away  at 
school.  This  I  sent  through  the  mails.  Suppose  that  Landry  Har- 
wood  had  found  out  I  purchased  that  Bible  and  sent  it  through  the 
mails?  And  suppose  he  had  gone  to  the  District  Attorney — not 
Francis  Wilson,  for  he  would  not  have  countenanced  such  a  thing — 
but  suppose  he  had  gone  to  a  District  Attorney  who  was  a  Knight 
of  Columbus  and  said,  "This  man  Sheppard  has  sent  to  his  daughter 
through  the  mails  a  copy  of  the  King  James  edition  of  the  Bible  and 
it  contains  some  language  that  if  taken  alone  and  separated  from  its 
context,  will  appear  obscene  and  we  can  try  him  and  send  him  to  the 
penitentiary";  and  suppose  they  had  procured  an  indictment  against 
me  and  brought  me  for  trial  before  a  juryt  Would  the  court  have 
allowed  it  to  proceed  f  Would  not  the  jury  have  promptly  decided 
the  contention  in  my  favor? 

Father  Crowley  is  calling  attention  to  these  foul  things  which 
he  says  are  taking  place.  Is  his  book  to  be  denied  the  mails  f  Is 
the  paper  that  these  men  are  publishing  to  be  denied  the  mails  be- 
cause in  a  few  instances  in  four  years  after  scanning  several  million 
copies  the  Knights  of  Columbus  can  find  a  few  sentences  that,  if 
standing  alone,  they  claim  offends  against  the  lawf  Ah!  gentlemen, 
let  me  tell  you.  Million*  of  copies  of  this  paper  circulate  each  year 
and  will  continue  to  do  so,  and  it  is  going  to  take  more  than  tne 


60  THE   STORY   OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL 

Knights  of  Columbus  and  all  the  other  Roman  CathoUcs  to  stop  it. 
PROSECUTION  A  MATTER  OF  PREJUDICE 

You  gentlemen  have  a  serious  duty  to  perform.  You  must  up- 
hold the  laws  of  your  country  but  remember  the  laws  are  made  to 
punish  the  guilty  and  not  the  innocent.  You  should  be  loyal  to  your 
country;  you  should  love  our  country  as  you  do  life  itself.  But 
remember  that  these  defendants  are  not  felons  but  benefactors  of 
the  race.  They  have  consecrated  their  lives  to  the  protection  of 
American  institutions  against  the  intrigues  of  Papal  Rome.  I  know 
you  will  not  say  that  these  defendants  are  guilty  of  filth  and  vile- 
ness.  I  know  that  you  will  say  what  they  have  done  is  highly  moral 
and  patriotic.  They  have  been  hounded  and  harrassed  for  a  long 
time  by  the  enemies  of  liberty  and  finally  they  have  been  dragged 
into  court.  These  same  enemies  of  the  people's  liberties  have  tried 
to  suppress  Father  Crowley's  book  and  THE  MENACE  when  the  book 
and  the  paper  was  merely  telling  the  truth.  An  attempt  has  been 
made  to  cast  infamy  upon  these  honest  men,  the  defendants,  because 
they  have  tried  to  do  that  which  their  conscience  told  them  was  in 
the  best  interest  of  all  the  people  of  this  nation.  This  prosecution 
was  actuated  by  religious  prejudice  and  not  by  a  sincere  desire  to 
preserve  and  protect  the  morals  of  the  people.  Gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  your  names  will  go  down  in  history  as  the  twelve  men  who 
found  a  verdict  of  not  guilty  when  four  of  their  fellow  citizens  were 
charged  with  publishing  obscene,  lewd,  lascivious  and  filthy  matter 
in  their  paper  when  they  were  only  attacking  and  telling  the  truth 
about  the  Roman  Catholic  Hierarchy  and  the  politicians  of  that 
church.  The  time  will  come  when  your  descendants  will  be  proud  to 
say,  "Our  ancestor  was  a  member  of  the  jury  at  Joplin  that  tried 
THE  MENACE  editors." 

The  time  allotted  me  for  argument  has  expired.  To  conclude, 
I  desire  to  thank  you  gentlemen  for  the  patience  which  you  have 
shown  and  for  the  good  attention  you  have  given  throughout  this 
trail. 

In  the  name  of  the  untold  thousand!  who  were  put  to  death 
during  the  Spanish  Inquisition;  in  the  name  of  the  thousands  of 
innocent  people  who  died  on  St.  Bartholomew's  Day  in  France;  in  the 
name  of  the  men  and  women  in  the  United  States  who  have  been 
persecuted,  boycotted,  threatened  and  driven  to  distraction;  in  the 


«          THE   STOHY    OF  THE   MENACE   TRIAL  *   61 

name  of  the  patriotic  speakers  who  have  been  mobbed  and  be«.ten: 
and  in  the  name  of  the  Rev.  William  Black  who  was  murdered 
at  Marshall,  Texas,  on  the  third  day  of  February,  1915,  I  ask  you 
by  your  verdict  to  remove  the  ban  from  Father  Crowley's  book,  and 
let  it  be  freely  distributed  throughout  the  country,  in  the  komes  of 
the  people,  who  want  to  know  the  truth;  I  ask  in  the  name  of  Free- 
dom and  Justice,  that  you  say  by  your  verdict  to  each  of  these  four 
gentlemen,  "Go  back  to  your  home  and  your  family,  and  continue 
to  use  your  ability  and  your  printing  press,  to  rouse  the  people  of 
this  nation  to  the  great  dangers  which  threaten  it  from  Papal 
Borne";  and,  last  of  all,  I  ask  you  to  fearlessly  write  in  your  verdict 
the  condemnation  of  the  system  which  these  defendants  are  so  nobly 
fighting,  so  that  it  may  be  read  by  liberty-loving  people  for  all  time 
to  come. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGOW 


A     001  042  082     6 


